Is this a time to limit our vision to removing one mistake? The 2016 election was not a fluke. It was the third election in a row expressing populist frustration to a government more attuned to a corporate oligarchy than to its electorate.
I just have one question as a Democrat:
How many seats have we lost over the past 10 years catering to "that dude in the diner" or that welder? How many? Over 1000 seats.
Meanwhile, we've thrown our entire base under the bus. We've compromised ourselves into a right-wing corner trying to reach across the aisle. What we refuse to learn is that there is no compromising with a brick wall. So instead, we've allowed ourselves to be pulled further and further to the right. You can't win elections when you stand for nothing but capitulation.
Do you know the definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.
5
This all sounds wonderful, but one cannot return to the time before Trump. Trump was formed by the time before Trump, and what we have left is the time after Trump. Looking for the nostalgic past is not a way forward. And, as others have noted, the time so affectionately recalled by Joe was a time of misery, dislocation, and exclusion for many Americans as a result of the policies and the mentalities of Joe and people like Joe.
1
Here's what I want:
A Better Way Forward. I propose:
1-Education: K-12 and beyond. Free and low cost options for post K-12 education and training will power the economy for the remainder of this century. Renovation of K-12 schooling including facilities along with community based solutions, better pay, and the recruitment and retention of quality teachers. As a retired teacher I've seen too many leave; for good reason.
2-An entire redesign of our national infrastructure which includes our energy grid and energy production along with transportation and public buildings. Focus on renewables. #1 above goes hand in hand with this plank. Trained, educated workforce for good paying jobs.
3-Healthcare for all at an easily affordable price. There's lots of existing models. Let's examine them all and come up with a hybrid of the best that works for us.
4-A complete overhaul of taxation and banking which provides more transparency and places the burden of taxation where it belongs--on those who profit the most. A larger and fairer share of the pie for those who create the goods and services which create our amazing abundance.
5-Term limits and campaign finance reform. 3 term limit for Senate. 16-20 year limit on SC justices.
6-Election reform: Secure elections, end of gerrymandering, remove electoral college. End Citizens United.
Whether it's seen as bipartisan or not I believe it is a much better way forward and should appeal to a vast majority of Americans.
3
This election is about nothing other than ‘dump trump’. If you have cancer, it isn’t the time to argue about the hospital room”s ambiance. Unlikely anyone else has the broad appeal of Biden. Biden/Harris one term, and then he can hand the torch to her. She’s young and tough and can deal. She can be the first female VP and audition for four years; by then, she can prove she’s presidential material. Gives Rs and Inds on the fence a chance to consider a short term fix. Please, Dems, don’t mess this up. Unite and think hard about the country, not your egos. Turnout is what matters.
1
Foreign policy decides Presidential races. Nixon won because the US was tired of Vietnam. Trump won because the US was tired of the "Global War On Terror".
1
If the voluble denizens of the twitterverse fail to wake up and smell the coffee--it ain't just the base baby!--then they deserve what they get. Which will be another four years of the narcissist-in-chief.
These debates are stupid and nothing short of a Democrat suicide pact.
I was a debater in high school and college and I think I know a debate when I see one and that’s not what this mess is. The so-called debates are more of a TV who’s got talent reality show. Isn’t it ironic that they’re all vying to go up against the creator of the Apprentice; wonder who’ll win that one. Maybe they should invite Jared and Ivanka to help moderate; at least we might get a read on how they’d all do against the Boss.
Funny? No. This is no joke. Instead of focusing the party on record (you do remember that) and how to beat Trump, Tom Perez and his collection of DC fools are running this media circus, wasting precious money and creating ammunition for the Republicans.
The only one who can beat Trump is Biden because he is the only one who can appeal to the still vast middle class. What should be happening is the vast array of Democrats on that stage should be lining up behind Joe with one of them as his running mate and assuring that the Democratic base comes out to support Joe while at the same time protecting the Senate.
Start putting country and party ahead of self interest.
7
Just read an article on Lakeway Texas Republicans. It made me think that if what they say is true Biden is in trouble. They have problems with Trump's behavior, but dismiss it as being real and saying what he really thinks.
Biden is too much of a politician and too in the system to appeal to this type of voter.
1
The author asks ' is this what Democrats want?' but why not is this what voters want. News Flash! If the candidate doesn't appeal to independents and moderates, they will not win.
2
I don't get the "there's a lot of sadness"... alluding to the anguish many Americans feel about Trump. The only reason there's anguish is because people have Trump Derangement Syndrome -- nothing he does is going to please them. We lived through 8 years of Obama, we can live through 8 years of Trump. Having said that, this was a pretty good article and shows that Biden is assuredly the best of the Dem candidates -- for both sides.
Biden wants to return to an imaginary time before Trump. He still thinks the Republican party is able to operate in good faith and respect for the Democrats, but that clearly was not the case during the Obama presidency. One cannot work with present day Republicans; they have to be defeated, just like the GOP tries to do all the time now.
4
Haven’t read all the comments but has no one noticed the photography in this article?
The Times seems fixated on Biden’s age, and this forms the basis for suggesting the need for a (younger) more progress Democratic candidate. No! We need Joe Biden to bring the country out of the morass of trump and his policies. We need Joe Biden to move the Country forward.
Those black & white photos are another subtle way for the Times to tell us Joe Biden is old & going backward. We know this is wrong! Tell ‘em it ain’t so Joe! Biden 2020!!
5
I vehemently disagree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez re: the choice of Biden leading to lessened voter turnout (I also disagree with her about many other things). Biden is my top choice, but I’ll vote for ANY Democratic nominee. The priority must absolutely be to defeat Trump - and although I’m a lifelong/staunch Democrat, I’m also saying that because we truly cannot sustain another four years (or *any* number of years) with Trump at the helm. With the continual deterioration of many critical issues, I’m increasingly feeling that our very survival is dependent on ensuring a Democratic victory.
8
When did Biden say he "wants to take America back to a time before Trump?" When did he base his campaign on "sheer familiarity "? The NYT loves a tidy narrative, and traded straight reporting for convenient editorial license some time back. But if Biden were to build on what Obama started, improving and strengthening the ACA, for example, that is not regression. That voters know his record is not a matter of mere familiarity but of trust--that he is who he appears to be, proven as such--while Kamala Harris, whom he befriended on her coming to D.C. and repaid him with an ambush false accusation on a world stage, has surprises in her past for anyone who thinks she's progressive. I'm not even for Biden, though he may well be the best to beat Trump. I'm for Warren. But fair is fair--and I've seen the NYT's playing up the horse race before, not fairly, either--with dreadful results in 2016. We can't afford it this time, NYT. Be honest.
9
The Democrats must find a candidate to oppose Trump who will switch voters away from Trump. That's not Joe Biden. It has to be someone who will play to the rabid dumb, also. I don't see anyone running that meets that test, either.
1
Biden's support of the invasion of Iraq far outweighs the other good he has done for the country. We are still paying the price for the invasion for which he voted in favor in the Senate. The Watson Institute for International Studies estimated the cost as $2 trillion dollar cost (that is 1000 times $2 billion dollars), $6 trillion when we include interest. The cost to the country's institutions and government legitimacy cannot be measured.
There is no amount of good I can imagine Joe Biden doing for the country that can erase that stain.
1
Some of us would prefer a time that hasn't existed for decades. Strong unions, decent middle class jobs, schools that educate, an America that makes stuff, a protected and expanded environmental protection, strong borders and enforced immigration laws, an immigration and asylum system that benefits this country first, parties that discuss what the country should look like in the next 50 years, a foreign policy that helps our U.S. and our allies get stronger and political discourse based on facts and vision not obstruction.
1
Joe Biden will remain a historic figure as the 2 term Vice president. Currently polls show that Biden is the front runner for the Democratic nomination for president not since Al Gore has there been a former 2 term Vice president running to be president. If Biden wants to put America in a reverse gear he might as well kiss his chances against Trump good bye.
What do democrats want ? They just don't want Trump reelected no matter what. Democrats want a candidate who could defeat Trump in 2020 just as they wanted a nominee who could defeat him in 2016. I predict that in 2020 the Democrats will fail to retake the white house because they have lost the trust of the Americans that matter, the electoral college.
To me Trump is more trustworthy in the promises he makes. He said he will not tinker with social security and medicare and he has not so far. He said he will keep the country safe and secure and let our defense forces take care of the barbaric forces around the world and the law enforcement keep order within our borders and he did just that. He promised jobs, jobs jobs and our employment situation for Americans of all races, national origins, genders and sexual orientation has been the best it has been in decades. He said he would cut taxes, he did that but in his next term if promises to cut taxes exclusively on average working class Americans and force our largest cities to deal appropriately with the problem of homelessness, Trump will be hard to beat no matter what.
2
He is very, very hard to dislike. He is clearly a good person. He has the right experience. He can certainly be a standard-bearer for decency again.
I used to think that was not enough--but after listening to the self-destructive musings of the way-too-left Dems at a recent debate, I would not be opposed to seeing him at the top of the ticket. Biden/Harris 2020
4
The concept of returning to "a time before Trump" is impossible to achieve. The Donald has used the wrecking ball of his hatreds and the way back is not available any longer. So sad.
We need to take the country back to before Reagan. And we need to recoup the trillions of dollars the GOP has transferred from ordinary Americans and their progeny to the very wealthy since 1981.
2
It seems clear there really are no decent candidates for president - at least none with a combination of ability and enough splash to turn heads. This is how we got into the current mess we're in. And also clearly, splash is much more important in the "minds" of most Americans than ability. They don't know how to recognize ability. But everyone can of course recognize splash.
3
We need to move FORWARD, not back!! Trump is already trying to move us back-- back to coal, etc... we don't need more of that. We need someone who is forward-looking, someone without corporate ties. Biden is the wrong candidate for this moment. His time has passed.
Michael -- That's the best article I've seen so far about the campaign. Every sentence in every paragraph is worth reading. Thank you so much. Journalism -- and good writing -- lives.
The times before Trump: low growth, high unemployment, millions more on food stamps than today, more regulation, policy elites continually getting the USA in foreign entanglements, open borders, Obamacare “if you like your Doctor” lying to the American public.......yes, the god old days...........
2
I do not understand people who say they will not vote in 2024 unless a Progressive is nominated. Their argument is that 4 more years of Trump will lay the foundation for a revolutionary Progressive election in 2024. They do not seem to realize that after 4 more years of Trump there will not be an election in 2024 - at least not an election in which the Republicans are not guaranteed victory.
4
As is well evidenced with both this article and the direction in which the progressive flank of the Democratic party has moved, the problem isn't only about Joe Biden as much as it's with a country and political landscape that has become little more than a battleground while trying to find some kind of equilibrium.
That said, there must be a reason why Donald Trump and some of the other Democratic candidates continually take it upon themselves to take side-shots at him.
Just to be clear.
He's not the racist or philanderer many try to make him out to be.
Maybe a little old-fashioned and a little bit hokey, but never as mean and obstreperous as what we see in the White House these days.
That said, if Mr. Biden wants to take America back to a time before Trump -- when civility, moderation and a willingness to compromise still meant something -- he's got his work cut out for him.
But there's no doubt we could all use a bit more of that now.
3
Oy.
The notion that Biden wants to get America back to a time before Trump-- we are not pre-Trump America, mostly for worse, somewhat for better. The question is how to move forward from here, however attractive 1976 might seem (to me too).
At the end of the article it refers to "the gutted middle class" as if that was something that just happened, like weather. Except that neither the Clinton nor the Obama administration did anything to make that better. Biden's not the one I would call in to really deal with that.
The idea that "centrists" must win is predicated on the notion that everybody else will hold their nose and vote for them. Others might say: "Yeah, Joe, you made it easier for banks to get bigger and take my house in bankruptcy. I'll get off my stoop and dutifully trundle down to the polls for you." Hilary Clinton--who arguably had a lot fewer stinkers in her record--counted on this approach and lost.
Some countries have a prime minister and a president. The prime minister actually runs the government. The president cuts ribbons, presides over parades, consoles the nation in time of tragedy. It seems to me that Biden--especially as portrayed in this article--would be well suited to be that kind of ceremonial president. His invocation of family tragedies wouldn't seem smarmy--as it does in genuine policy discussions--but would be an attempt to connect with people. Too bad we can't vote for Biden for that.
Joe is for the conservatives -- non-Republican conservatives, the fearful, low-information masses. Unfortunately, they seem to be a majority.
Well...the time before Trump...is the time that brought us Trump. So Im not onboard with that idea. But I understand the underlying point being made.
Lets face it,we need real progress, and we need it in '20. Trump is of course a symptom. One we need to pay a whole lot of attention to. His losing wont make his supporters vanish, instead they will dig-in like ticks. Trump losing wont solve the roiling racism that still exists among far too many white Americans. And yes, even among people of color, who denigrate whites (for good reasons, but not always) and other people of color.
The US is a melting pot, but beneath that pot is a not so well tended fire, that is always on the verge on burning the kitchen and the whole house down. And we need to tend to that fire!
We need to start the difficult conversations about race, and gender and how we the people want to be governed going forward.
And thats critical. How do we the people, want to be governed? By despots? By one belligerent white male in the Senate? By a House leader who has yet to grasp the significance of the impact social media has already had on the US population? By uber-wealthy Biz leaders, who claim to have miracle cures for our issues? But do not.
How do we want the US Govt to govern us? In a time when the complexities of all our interactions (personal, financial, social) are being amplified by tech, and the creeping degradation of what "privacy" means and is no longer.
How do we want to be governed!?
2
Joe Biden is my choice; by far the best person for the job of President of the united States of America. And, the only one who can, for sure, beat Trump.
3
Maybe the headline should read "A Time Before McConnell"?
2
I fear Trump's attacks on Biden are merely a variation of "Please, don't throw me in that briar patch!" How can we trust any polling machine after the Russians and Facebook have wounded our "democratic" elections? Which candidate and which policies are "Really" going to pose a threat to him?
Harris is charismatic but needs more substance. Warren has plenty of substance but is too wonky and has to stop wearing magenta. Unfortunately, a woman winning the presidency is still pie-in-the-sky. Biden's record is turning out to be a double-bladed sword. He needs more sound bites. He does come across as sleepy!
The Democrats of all shapes, sizes, colors and genders need to stop bickering and present a strong, united front. Only then will we, maybe, have a chance against the real crooks.
1
Many of us don't want to go back to a Senate that doesn't allow women to speak even when determining a lifelong appointment. We don't want to continue the legacy that only men "look" Presidential. I don't want to go backwards at all. The idea of going backwards is really only attractive to the power block that has had a grip on our Government since it's inception. Let's move into our future, and stop grovelling and giving in to stupid ideas that the people want one more white man who is incapable of hearing people at all. Let Joe take the stage and show his true colors, his numbers will drop and we can stop this ridiculous discussion that makes up stories about what people want. When will we stop giving so much power to polls? They never reflect reality.
1
"I believed you, Anita. Biden didn't."
2
Joe has both baggage and shortcomings and he's already made some unforced campaign errors. It's tempting (and I've been very tempted) to write him off but that would be a very great mistake even for smart progressive voters.
In short, by the time the party conventions roll around, despite his shortcomings, he could easily be the most powerful candidate to win the Electoral College and save the world from a second Trump term.
In other words, the "perfect" (as if any candidate is) could not only be the enemy of the good, but the harbinger of disaster.
Give Joe the benefit of your doubts at least through the first few primaries!
1
Just when I was resigning myself to the reality that Joe was our best bet, this article comes out reminding me why I had always rejected him.
He's a decent man who has made some grievous political mistakes. Of course, he's light-years better than the incumbent, but who isn't?
As an old guy, I really would like to see a person like Al Gore as president, a radical environmentalist and left-wing firebrand. That ain't Joe.
It's all very frustrating, but I gave up on perfection a long time ago. I realize that I must settle for third or fourth best. As we say in Florida, life's a beach.
1
ARTICLE: “In the late ’90s, MBNA hired his son Hunter out of law school; after he left the company, it paid him a $100,000 annual retainer to advise it on internet issues, an arrangement that lasted from 2001 to 2005.”
I’m sure Hunter’s brilliant advice on internet issues was worth every penny of that $100,000 annual retainer. I’ll bet Hunter was also giving brilliant advice on internet issues to China and the Ukraine!
3
A riveting article, though difficult for me to reconcile. Biden, with all the accolades he earned, isn't my preference. First, he is 75 years old, a challenging position for a man to lead a country. The second reason is the poor judgment he offered Anita Hill while it was blatantly clear, she was telling the truth, and rather than chastising a perpetrator he helped nominate him as a Supreme Justice. At the end, I sincerely believe there are more qualified democratic canditades the country may benefit from. Yet, should he remain the only chance to defeat an unqualified Trump, I would vote for Biden in a heart beat.
1
Biden has run twice and failed. Trump will eat him alive just like Harris did. I prefer to go with someone who has forward looking vision, is smart and able to speak effectively without loose lips, will not fold when attacked like he was in first debate, and is not remembered for his role in Anita Hill hearings, his support of credit card companies, and his support for Hyde Amendment. He may win over some dudes in the diner but in the end he will help re-elect Trump. He cannot hide behind Obama.
3
No America (at least those who had to vote for Hillary and those that had to vote for trump) does not want Biden's America before trump. This is the very reason Hillary was not elected...no more hawks in the white house, no more politicians who are simply career originated, no more tax breaks on any level for corporations, no more giving corporation citizenship..... Have we lost our way that much that the simple rights of the common person are trampled for the sake of the wealthy, the corporations, runaway military spending , the partisan laws, the GMO foods, the overpriced pharmaceuticals, the profit-driven health care system? No more enaction from either side. We are not far-left liberals...these demands are what sanity looks like. We have just grown accustomed to our unhealthy situation. NO BIDEN, we don't want to go back to those days, we desire better.
2
Yup, I voted for Trump in 2016, but he has run me off the reservation with his latest hate-filled, racist taunts. I don't share his vision of what makes America great and I'm weary of his daily soap opera.
So, where does this Republican go? I like Joe Biden--good guy. I like Elizabeth Warren, too. Maybe one of these moderate governors will work for me. But what I want more than anything else for our country is a return to decency in our politics.
8
In a sense I suspect the 2020 election might be construed as decent people against indecent people and I'm concerned the wrong people may prevail unless there is massive turnout.
2
By believing we could go back to a time before Trump, Mr. Biden and other Democrats think we could have a second chance to seriously work to solve this Republic's problems instead of just floating in a dream state.
Unfortunately, the universe we live in does't give us that alternative. By wanting to try to go back in time and by thinking that trying it again might produce a better result is also symptomatic of being in a dream state.
4
Nice guy. Talks too much about the past. Has a tendency to think he's the smartest guy in the room, with all the answers, much like other long-time politicos. Has been in the public spotlight for decades, which has produced some serious baggage. His time has passed.
2
I don't want to return to a time before Trump. That is not going to occur. What I want to return to is the country I thought, mistakenly as it turned out, that had room for all of us no matter what color our skin was, what our religion was, what our gender was, or what our political beliefs were. I want to see America grow rather than step back to a time when it didn't invest in its citizens, it allowed companies to overpay their CEOs and shareholders at their employees expense, and deregulated too many things leading to some outright dangerous actions on the part of companies and people.
I want to see America enter the 21st century when it comes to health care for all legal residents and citizens of America. I want to see my generation and those born later able to retire in comfort. I want to know that our tax dollars are paying for things that will improve the country rather than hurt it. I'd like to see age discrimination eliminated when it comes to jobs. I'd like to see people judged on the basis of their character rather than on the basis of their national origins or skin color. I'd like to see decency and humanity have the upper hand instead of the monied classes.
Will any GOP candidate attempt to do those things? Not in my experience. Will the Democrats try: maybe but that's better than absolutely not. And most Democrats are not Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell in character.
8
@hen3ry - I remember from past posts that you were seeking employment, and reading your comment this morning it struck me-you would be a wonderful political speechwriter. Your comment here is exactly what we need to tell the whole country. Take care - all the best, csa
2
"Jo Bidden wants to take america back to a time before trump. Is that what democrats want?" That's what this democrat wants, Jo Binden the anti-trump. A tale of good vs evil. I would prefer Elizabeth Warren but I don't think she can win in a general election.
3
There are two paths to winning the electoral college- the rust belt or the sun belt. Each path requires a different candidate. The sun belt is the future but the rust belt could work next year. That’s a better way to frame question.
Also this is a straw man: “Biden is actually an ideal foil: Attacking him is a way of attacking Obamaism (seen as too timid and much too wedded to the belief that only incremental change is possible) without attacking Obama himself.”
We have moved further left since 2008 and Biden has not caught on. Obama now would have to support legal marijuana and gay marriage at least two things he did not actively support in 2008 - it’s not an attack, it’s simply realizing that we are always going to be moving forward and candidates either need to move forward or get left behind.
Last time we ran a centrist candidate with a lot of baggage and lost where it counted. Biden’s baggage is different but it will be exploited by the party of Willie Horton and Swift Boats.
3
All the photos being in B/W certainly reinforces the idea that Biden is "trapped in another era." This might have been an artistic decision, but it comes across as a political statement as well. Bad idea.
5
Here in South Dakota the headline in our newspaper today was that our payment in sales tax totaled millions less this year than expected, and an independent estimate for next year, was even more millions in the red. This loss, after our state won the court case to require Amazon and others to pay sales tax to the states wherein the buyer resides. The reason: the economy, especially farming, isn’t doing so well and people are spending less, travelling less, less sales tax paid.
Why do I tell you this? AOC is wrong. Couched correctly, sympathetically, with documentation from our own states’ info, the case can be made that the fly-over, Rural states are not being made great, but made to suffer disproportionately. Bad decisions were made regarding tariffs that have hurt farmers in the South and upper Midwest, manufacturers and plants in the rust belt states, and promises and payments to keep companies in place have been fruitless wastes of taxpayer dollars and the billions in aid to farmers have been pennies on their lost dollar, not stopping the ongoing march of those giving up farming after generations on the land.
We relearned in 2016 about the electoral vote. All voters matter, but especially where you can turn the electoral college totals.
Democrats should be about healthcare, infrastructure (including 4G literally everywhere, so jobs can be in rural places), education, embracing our allies, and ending fruitless tariffs that have beggared our hardest working citizens.
5
Very one sided article, Joe is" a day late and a dollar short".
He doesn't have a snowball chance.
Not going to happen, write about something else.
3
why do you think that you can make the decision for the entire country. if you don't like what this person is writing about then don't read it. There are many of us who would be glad to vote for Joe Biden!
6
Compared to the wars and fears of the Bush presidency, futility and disappointments of the Obama presidency, bigotry and entertainment of the Trump presidency, Biden's presidency would be so low key and boring, it would be like Americans have chosen to have no president at all,
If Americans want to continue being divided and conquered, fooled and ruled, by billionaire corporate oligarchs, for the rich and trickle down for the rest, Biden will be their figurehead with a big white smile.
3
Illustrated in black-and-white. Appropriate for someone of Biden's era.
You are going for Biden not because of any passion, but out of a fear of the extreme left, which fear I share.
But you think the nation will feel safe and cared for in Joe's arms, and I disagree.
Please, just look at him at a gathering: he slurs his speech, he skips syllables and whole words. He'll start a sentence, then midway switch it up. His movements are glacially slow. His face is botoxed into a mask, no life in it. This is alarming.
He has no magnetism, no fire in the belly, he cannot attract a crowd because he's so boring. Say what you will, to win the race, the candidate must appeal to the passions, and Joe does not.
Both sides have fatal flaws: Joe's bland anodynes are lifeless against the fiery passion of Trump's hatred for immigrants, which strikes deep chords in the hearts of his base.
Kamala & Co have jumped the shark on policies: she will not win on what is billed as a Socialist agenda by Trump: abortion till birth, voting rights for felons in jail, free college for rich and poor, free health care for illegals, and open borders.
However, I agree with a progressive stand on quality public education from cradle through college with no debt at state schools, phasing onto universal health care, promotion of a competitive renewable industry, housing for homeless, and so forth.
Neither side can win as they are, but Biden cannot change, and if Kamala can, she might be able to beat Trump.
2
There is no basis for your fear. There is no such thing as an American "extreme left" ready to impose a communist regime. This is not the 50's. What the progressive branch of the Democratic party wants is to expand the many "socialists" programs baby boomers have been enjoying for years. From free education and home buying programs thanks to the GI bill to access to healthcare thanks to Medicare, we, Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Z only want the same kind of government help they got to be able to climb thr social ladder, just like they did.
1
First, you didn't understand my comment. Second, relatively few were recipients of the GI bill, we didn't all get free down payments or free college, and Medicare doesn't start till 65.
These are the things that jump the shark: abortion till birth [the thought is gruesome; a baby can be born at 6 or 7 months and survive without any medical assistance. Mom had plenty of time to choose, now unless the life of mother or baby is at risk, carry it and give it for adoption if you can't care for it.], voting rights for felons in jail [you lose that right while in jail, yes, give it back when the debt to society has been paid], free college for rich and poor [the rich don't need college tuition assistance, unless all public colleges are made low to no tuition, but so many complications to this - will you put private colleges out of business?], free health care for illegals [Americans who can barely pay for ACA resent this, so why even make it an issue], and open borders [we should legalize the 11-12M already here, not allow 100k more to pour over the border every month].
2
So far I can choose between a bunch of (are they really democrats?) Dem candidates who cannot raise enough money to win and have "pie in the sky", unachievable social platforms or old Joe with his very un-exciting self.
I'd vote for a female or other sorts of people but none that are what I've seen to date.
America belongs to "we the people", not any POTUS, now or later, as that's how it's set up!
Most of my friends and family are liberal Democrats, as I am, but living here in Idaho (a very religious state) the Trumpies that I see and hear are not poor people by any means. They love Trump for his anti-immigration attacks, his aggressive, crude taunts (saying it "like it is") and of course appointing conservative judges.
This is the reality of the intermountain West - way different from the so-called Rust Belt population who feel left behind.
What disturbs me about these articles is that almost always there is no mention of Buttigieg when writing about Harris, Warren and Sanders. Buttigieg has enormous qualifications, has raised a ton of money, and isn't getting much mention in the NYT - similar to the treatment of Hillary last time.
Biden is a great guy, but too old. But I'll sure vote for him if he is the primary winner!
3
That is why this coming election is crucial as it is not about "have vs have-nots" anymore but about stopping the rise of racism, xenophobia and mysogyny.
2
Republicans have rushed to the far right and will not work with any democratic president. If Biden wins they will tie him up as they did Obama. They did not obstruct Obama just because he was black, though I think that was certainly part of the reason for some.
Biden is making a big mistake by emphasing the days of yore, of working across the aisle with Republicans. We need someone who has a clear vision for our future, not lies and insults like Trump. Who will make a case, not just for themselves, but for a Democratic Senate, because that is exactly what we need.
Blue wave 2020!
2
There is a balance between the ideal social role that Government might play, and that which we can actually afford, and which stands a chance of surviving in Congress. Can Joe lead us there? I believe so.
I also believe that he needs a female running mate, with strong legal background, and at least some history in government.
Democrats leaning strongly to the left need to understand economic reality, as well as political reality. Social programs unfunded or inadequately funded are a sham. While the vision from the extreme left may provide lofty objectives, what the nation needs is stable reality.
And in particular, a president who isn't trolling for war with Iran, to enable his re-election.
3
I think Biden, because he's a centrist from Pa., is the only candidate in the top 5 (Sanders, Warren, Harris and Buttigieg being the others) that actually could unite Americans. At least a little. And he has the best chance to win Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennysylvania (maybe even Ohio) which Clinton, with all her faults, barely lost. (Which is why I wanted Sherrod Brown to run. He's a better - younger, more progressive - Biden.)
But I support Warren because she'd make the best president. America needs a strong, progressive leader who will take on Mitch McConnell and the Republican obstructionists machine. Joe will give us 4 years of "normalcy" like the Obama years. That's just not good enough with the state America is in today.
2
Before any progressive movements beyond pre-2016, the next Democratic president should build stronger safeguards to democracy and the election system.
2
It’s interesting that all the photos are in black-and-white, it gives a sense of the age of the candidate. Good for Joe that the photos weren’t in sepia. I also wonder if the lack of color doesn’t positively reflect Joe. Lately he has seemed very pale washed out and old. In black-and-white that doesn’t show up.
As a 75-year-old myself, I do think Joe is too old. But if he wins the nomination, I won’t hesitate to vote for him.
I also hope that during the debates, that the Democratic candidate (whoever it is) doesn’t lower them selves to the vile behavior of the current Occupant of the White House.
3
Pragmatism is the only path to victory in 2020. Medicare for all is a sure fire loss. I have met no-one who favors it for this campaign cycle. A few speak of a gradual move to a dominate system like Medicare but one that allows for private health insurance.
Open boarders is another flash point. The majority of Americans want a sensible immigration system that allows the government to control the number of people admitted.
I was a fan of two of the other candidates until the debates. I was appalled at the violent run to the very left of the Democratic Party. I was not a Biden supporter. I am seriously moving in that direction now.
Let's face it, the extreme left progressive wing of the Party, while making an astonishing amount of noise, is hardly representative of the majority of Democratic voters.
Twitter is for twits. We need to consider that and screen out all the other foolishness flying through the Internet and cell towers today.
6
The title misleads. What most Americans want is a President with integrity, honesty, moral values, compassion, empathy - everything DJT lacks. Polls show they believe Biden has those things. Democrats presumably want the same, although sometimes it's hard to tell as they seem to squabble over how best to re-elect DJT.
10
The one thing the democrats need to focus on is getting Trump out of the white house. Joe Biden has, I hope, got the broad appeal to do just that.
7
This Democrat wants to beat the present occupant of The White House in November 2020. I don't care if that means taking America back to a time before Trump. At this point, i don't believe that any of the other (?23 at this point?) candidates will be able to beat the present occupant. They all seem too busy promoting impeachment, universal health care, and free college for all;they pander to the base on the East and West coasts while forgetting that one needs 270 Electoral votes to win.
4
We could transform our political process by having term limits and precluding anyone over 70 from voting or holding office.
I am 72 and it is time to let future generations take over.
Joe seems like a perfectly nice, caring guy. But our generation has to move on.
I am all in for Pete.
Joe Biden is not perfect, but he is a good man and a politician who has done much to lift up his fellow Americans.
I will be happy if Biden is the Democratic nominee and will be proud to vote for him.
Better Biden at 76 than many of his younger rivals.
16
Ilmar Oman claims the country’s biggest problem is white males, while Kamala Harris paints Biden as an racist who opposed bussing in the 70’s. Good men like Biden....need not apply and Trump will cruise into a second term. Thank God...
2
Biden is like Mueller, a bunch of hype about gravitas and presence but nearly senile when you actually give him a platform to talk.
5
But Biden is white person, and a man, too.... How does this possibly work in today's Democrat party?
1
@David,
Pair him with Kamala Harris. She would be hard to beat in '24.
3
Hey Democrats, I sucked it up in 2016 and voted for Clinton. It was not easy. Please don't force me to think about voting for Biden.
3
If he wins, there will need to be an investigation into Chinese hacking of the election. Biden and China are really tight, seeing how Hunter is in China’s pocket.
Hopefully the Democratic candidates will continue to play the “throw the white working class under the bus” game.
Biden, with a woman VP candidate, would easily beat Trump. In my opinion, the other candidates would have a harder time taking Trump down. As in most presidential elections, the moderate voters in the middle will decide the contest. Biden would be the most attractive candidate to those voters. Go Joe!
184
I agree! I think a Biden-Harris ticket would be in fire. And would set her up for a successful run in 2024. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?!
14
This sentiment is as mistaken as the assumption that Hillary was a lock based on the lesser of two evils.
Please reconsider this equally disastrous line of reasoning.
14
@A Realist I agree that this ticket of Biden Harris would have great appeal. One of Clinton's mistakes in 2016 involved choosing a running mate with no appeal to minorities. Biden has an appeal to one large segment of the Florida electorate: the elderly. They would go for him, especially if he emphasizes repairing the looming problems of Social Security and Medicare. His support of Obama care is very popular here. Harris has appeal to a different large demographic, both black and Hispanic. And the combination mirrors the strengths of the Democratic Party: the old liberal, the new progressive. I like that combination better than either candidate by him- or herself.
19
A time before Trump? You mean a time of eternal wars, no one in government halting climate change, no politicians doing anything about deteriorating education, money in campaigns or politicians lobbying after retirement. And a time when politicians were spokesmen for Wall Street, corporations and oil. That time? Of course we need a Democrat, but we can't recreate a past that didn't work, a planet that wasn't sustainable anymore than we could MAGA. We need vision, but mostly we need a someone that will take on corporations and oil to halt our climate emergency.
190
@Newell McCarty
Eternal wars started by republicans. Climate change denied by Republicans. Education attacked by Republicans. Money in campaigns made more egregious by Republicans and the SCOTUS judges they nominated to the court (Citizens United, courtesy of Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas, all put there by Republicans). Republicans far and away are the darlings of corporations, currently getting all sorts of goodies from the current Republican
I don't understand how it's possible that the history of the last 30-40 years can be so muddied up that we lose track of who did what. Republicans thank you for doing such a good job at it.
98
@Matthew
We're not losing track. We know Biden and HRC voted for the Iraq War.
Many people voted for Obama because he didn't.
30
@fast/furious
Disinformation campaign. Biden and HRC's sin was to assume the best intentions of Bush II, and, more to the point, Cheney. So you would look past Bush II and blame them. How awful.
16
Let's start with a basic fact: Joe Biden is a pathetic loser. If this man is going to be the leader of the free world (hah!), could we stop with the maudlin references about his grief over the death of his son, Beau? Didn't Marine General John Kelly lose a son honorably in battle in a war that Joe Biden--completely disingenuously--voted for? Yet Gen. Kelly never seemed to publicly mourn that his son's death was such a burden, that he was unable to perform his duties as he was depressed all the time, etc. Sleepy Joe used Beau's death as an excuse for Obama selecting Crooked Hillary as "the Chosen One," he was too deep in grief to run for President and presumably to govern. That's leadership! What a pathetic old fool! Why doesn't Sleepy Joe go somewhere and grow mold? Or maybe Common Man Joe could make another $15mm or more in the time he's been a public citizen, and use tax breaks that he supposedly abhorred as a public servant. Please!
11
Thanks to Michael Steinberger for such a thoughtful, well-written piece. It's mildly unrelated to the general pulse of his article but I did want to share a quick story relating to Biden's son, Beau. In 2006 I had very traumatic surgery; they couldn't even use lasers. I was couch-ridden for weeks, hobbling around with a cane, in my twenties, and living in Historic New Castle. Around this time, Beau Biden was campaigning for Attorney General. One of his volunteers had come to my door and I mentioned to them that I had donated some money and believed in Beau and thought he was a good man and would regretfully have to turn down attending an event for his campaign due to my recovery.
So, an hour later, Beau Biden shows up to visit me. Completely gregarious, quick witted, and patient. He made an "oooh" face and turned away in disgust when I showed him my scar, then started cracking up. I was so tremendously moved; after all, he already knew he had my vote. The Bidens have done a lot for Delaware. Whether or not Biden's brand of old fashioned liberalism is what the Democrats want, many Americans will likely be stirred by the nostalgic glow of the candidate that came to town and went door-to-door and I think Joe Biden has that in spades. Time will tell.
261
@William Byron
Thank you for sharing this with us, Mr. Byron; what a great memory of Beau you have; we miss him.
I hope you fully recovered and you are doing well today. Please take care.
41
@William Byron
I can ask one question: If JOE Biden wasn't the right candidate in the best of times, how is he somehow the right candidate in the worst of times?
8
@mj ... Because with Trump we've reached the absolute bottom of the barrel which is 100 times worse than anything we've ever known in this lifetime.
15
I was not enthusiastic about Biden. I am a Warren supporter. That said, I think there are weaknesses with all the candidates which is not surprising because all people have flaws. It is an off the rack world, not made to order. This means that any candidate will not agree with you on every issue. I am starting to warm to Biden, not because I agree with him on every issue, but because he will be a balm to our wounds. And we are a wounded nation, make no mistake. Compromise in governance is a necessary evil. One of the central problems with Trump is he governs for 35% of the population. The rest of us are left bitter and angry. I don't want another four years of this type of presidency.
10
@j
If one takes a hard Right party, that compromises with a moderate that gives us a Rightwing policy.
If you take a hard Right party, that compromises with a (supposed) hard Left candidate that gives us centrist policy.
40yrs of negotiations from our moderates has brought the country to the state it's in. Always beginning from the center and compromising half way from there rightward makes 'merica a Rightwing country.
1
There are kids reaching voting age today who know no America but an America that squats over the Middle East, that erupts in scandal after scandal, that sees health outcomes, life expectancy, and economic opportunity degrade for all but the upper class.
Those kids, and the people who are a little older (like myself), have no glorious past to want to go back to.
7
@Roarke
That's because they know no history. The Republicans' war on education made sure of that.
I suggest you educate yourself. A good starting point, imho, would be Rick Atkinson's The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy Book 1):
https://www.amazon.com/British-Are-Coming-Lexington-Revolution-ebook/dp/B07HF349XK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2UEKPS7B3YERY&keywords=the+british+are+coming+by+rick+atkinson&qid=1564173612&s=gateway&sprefix=the+british+are%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1
Despite the shortcomings of Biden and his lack support from far left factions in the democratic party I would support Biden vs Trump without question. Trump inherited a stable growing economy from Obama and of course with a pro biz GOP in the senate ramming thru a 2 trillion $ tax cut for big biz and the wealthy boosted the economy. Massive deregulation and defense spending further juiced the economy despite concerns about climate change and pollution ignored by Trump admin. The country can do well without a booming stock market if it means a better balance of income inequality as Trump is in the pro billionaire class and a phony populist witness his 5th ave gilded penthouse and Mar-A-Lago estate for billionaire cronies. No more manic tweeting or divisive language is a good trade off middle road uniter who is civil and not a racist, not beholden to Putin anxious to rebuild a frayed ties to our traditional allies. No crooked son in law or princess daughter prancing around Buckingham Palace as American royalty.
4
Biden's plan of "let's go back to a time before Trump" is a terrible idea. No one wants to go backwards; people in general want to move forward with solutions to problems. Also, Biden's "let's go back" is just another take on Trump's "MAGA" logo - Trump campaigned in 2016 and has for more than 2 years been changing policies and approaches in all areas - social, environmental, civil rights, to take us "back" to a time when decisions were primarily made by white men, women's rights over their own bodies were non-existent, discrimination against people because of race, gender, orientation, religion was acceptable, pollutants ruled, and the interests of corporations were more important people's interests and rights. Trump is pushing backwards, why would a person running for President advance a slogan and position about also going backwards.
We need to move forward: protecting civil rights and people's rights and privacy, help those individuals and families who need a helping, enforce anti-bullying and anti-discrimination laws; implement policies that will stop pollution of our air and water and limit corporate and farming welfare to specific needs.
Biden is showing is age with this approach. And, I won't vote for someone who is only running on "anti-Trump" slogans. I want ideas, assertiveness, compassion about all people and how to make this country grow and move forward for everyone.
5
What has the media so obsessed with defending Biden?
For all of his career Biden has been a right of center politician who has been co-responsible for anti women anti choice, pro corporate, pro Insurance industry, pro Pharmaceuticals and anti all forms of Universal healthcare. His foreign experience is based on the old boys club. Why are the media and especially the Democratic leadership in favor of a man win his seventies who wants to go to the past as he recently announced?
Going to the past is something that Trump in some way campaigned for.
There is and was nothing in the past that even marginally described todays world.
Are the democrats really want to go to the past, setting everyone even more backwards, financially, economically, healthcare wise, campaign finance reform, emigration, women’s rights, justice reform, climate disaster and environmental damage?
It is time to split up the Democratic Party, between conservative (read former Republican) and a progressive, pro-people party.
The recent Trump disaster, non impeachment is created by the Democratic leadership by not attacking it at the very first signs.
The famous cowardice of the political parties seen so many times before in this world, always put themselves first.
3
This is really something to wake up and cheer for! – the bland leading the bland instead of the blond leading the blind.
Can any suggest a better way to diminish Dem voter turnout?
6
@vishmael
Put both old men on the ticket, Old Bernie and Old Biden, in either order.
Going back to pre-Trump doesn't mean backward policies. It means returning to a modicum of albeit imperfect civility, calm, respect, the constant lies in our face, and a respite from the daily juvenile tweet storms that we are forced to endure. No mother or father would tolerate in their children the language that spews from his mouth.
5
Biden has the smell of yesterday's man on him. He will only pervail in the Dems don't want to risk a woman or a younger, more modern thinker going against Trump. Pity.
3
@Anthony Jenkins
Agree. I think the Democrats should run TWO women, Harris and Warren, in either order.
So... make America as good again?
Wouldn't it be great to revert to a time before Trump?
A time when most of the white supremacists were deep in their closets and under their rocks?
A time when the Russians weren't actively aiding and abetting a sitting US President?
A time when the Departments of Justice, Interior, Commerce, Homeland Security and as well as the EPA, weren't led by criminal acolytes of an American traitor?
Vote in 2020. Vote whoever is the Democratic candidate for President, US Senator or Representative.
Together, We the People' can make America beautiful again.
4
I do not understand why people of color trust Joe. He did not advance nor give Obama good counsel. He is not young enough. And out of touch and compromised.
Vote in the women. We won’t let yu all down.
There is a mighty fear amongst the electoral
3
Biden appears supremely naive when he acts as if there’s anything left of the Republican Party that he used to work “across the aisles” with. Today’s Republican Party is unpatriotic, putting money and power before country aka the people every time. It is corrupt, dishonest, manipulative and anti-democratic loving brutal dictators while turning its back on its democratic allies. It actively works with the Russians against the democratic interests of America and has no shame whatsoever saying so. They love Wikileaks which Mueller describes as a criminal organization. They make friends with convicted sex traffickers and greedily lap up any money they receive from any kind of criminal enterprise whatsoever. They seek to undermine the people’s right to vote at every turn, limit their right to free speech and their right to gather and protest. They have turned this government and society upside down and inside out while leaving the pieces on the floor behind them.
4
I think that he’s not a pragmatic choice,” OAC told the magazine. “That’s my frustration with politics today, that they’re willing to give up every single person in America just for that dude in a diner.” She continued: “Just so you can get this very specific slice of Trump voters? If you pick the perfect candidate like Joe Biden to win that guy in the diner, the cost will make you lose, because you will depress turnout as well.”
She’s wrong and she and her ‘Squad’ will lose us the White House and possibly Congress and dash any chance of regaining the Senate. These 4 young women are impressive but they forget (or don’t care) that come from ultra-safe Democratic districts. Their reelection is secure, not as secure are the democratic representatives from “purple” districts.
Representative Cortez should be pledging to work on behalf of the Democratic nominee whoever they are, not bashing Joe Biden. I don’t think she or her squad want a Trump victory but that is exactly where they are headed.
I know this is a piece about Joe Biden so I’ll get back to him. I will
probably not vote for him in the primary. I like Mike Bennett right
now. But without doubt I will vote for Joe Biden or any Democratic nominee next November. Most important for the future of the United States is to get Donald Trump out of the White House. I am also looking forward to voting for Tedra Cobb for Congress.
4
“He was more than happy to defend Obama’s legacy, the better to lay claim to Obama’s mantle. On the campaign trail, Biden misses no chance to invoke Obama’s name — not just because Obama remains a revered figure among Democratic voters but also because Biden and his team believe that the Obama connection is a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to thorny issues from Biden’s past.”
So the Tea Party...
Is that white rust belt person where Trump has 90% approval no matter how evil really going to vote for the guy that invoked Obama’s name?
The Tea Party gave us Trump. It was a response to a black man in office and hatred for all things he touched. Even in good old California I remember hearing conservatives say Obama Ben Laden, he’s a muslim, he’s not a citizen etc.
Why would using Obama as cover work for that guy in the rust belt diner that likely has bigot bias? Did Obama do anything for the rust belt? Trump used their hatred to blame migrants and do nothing. Now we have to all vote conservative to save the conservatives from themselves.
You’ll have to ask the liberals who are fed up with cleaning house for these bigots if we should sit this vote out. That’s what you are risking by telling us we are extremists for wanting a health care system that works, fair wages, climate response, accessible education and ending corruption.
It is a tactical choice that is being forced on us. Another tactic is to let it burn so we can show republican extreme failure.
5
Any politician who believes in a pre-Trump American is as delusional as Trump.
2
Michael...I'm grateful for your message and the personal flavor of it. I
see Joe Biden as an honest long-time Servant Of the People, compared
to Trump, who is and has been one who chronically has served Only
Himself. I lament the fact that "Present Trump" occupies the Oval Office
as a bonafide Sociopathic Personality Disorder. One of the symptoms
of that psychological disorder is his satisfaction at the knowledge that
he is our ubiquitous Center Of Attention. His amazing propensity for
Lying is one more of the major Symptoms. Having no conscience, he can Lie and Fabricate anything to his own convenience. "Truth" is, thereby,
as conveniently Redefined. Being a diagnosable Sociopath, Trump is beyond Treatment; we, the People, are in Need of it!
2
Mr. Biden is a deeply decent man with imperfect judgement. The most important thing he is misjudging is that the other side will respond to moderation. And this, after being VP to the man the Republicans would have cutoff their arms rather than lift a little finger to support.
The idea that McConnell will develop a case of decency when Biden is president is a fantasy. Republicans have acted in bad faith every time a Dem has been in the White House for the last thirty years. To believe that they will change their behavior is to believe in the tooth fairy.
Sorry, Mr. Biden. Today, moderation = appeasement.
3
A vote for Biden is a vote for more of the same. Moderates gave us the 3/5 compromise and mass incarceration. Moderates like Biden gave us the Iraq War. They do not stand up against the ultra right wing, they make deals with them and enable them. If Biden does manage to beat Trump, we will have an even worse white supremacist fascist in office the next time around. The moderate Democrats are just as responsible for this current state of political affairs as are the Republicans. For the sake of the country step aside, Biden. Let the Democrats have a true progressive lead the party.
2
Make America Great Again Again?
I'm sorry. This guy is selling nostalgia for an era that was only great if you were white and middle class. And I get no sense that he understands the era we're living in.
Not only that, he's not stupid. He's cynical. He knows that if he "reaches across the aisle" they'll slap his hand away just as they have with every Democrat since Newt Gingrich got the GOP to declare total war on the opposition.
So he's cynically selling us an illusion.
1
The bland leading the bland v. the blond leading the blind - that should be some electoral contest…
2
So, when do the blue "Make America Great Again...Again" hats hit the shelves?
It's certainly what this Democrat wants!
None of the democratic candidates will matter if we don't take more steps to protect our elections from foreign hackers. "Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data in the Illinois voter database" according to the NY Times. They will no doubt employ it this election with Trump's blessing.
It’s endlessly ironic that the MSM, led by the Wall St. Times, has totally buried the incontrovertible fact that Rust Belt exit polls in 2016 proved that Bernie, not Trump, was the favorite of white workers throughout the region. This is obviously an inconvenient truth for the MSM like the Times that have been hired to convince the masses that only Uncle Joe of Scranton—the neoliberal’s neoliberal, the Senator owned and operated by the company that made Delaware America’s “Company State,” in Nader’s apt phrase—can win back the little people from Trump. Trump will chop him into mincemeat.
1
"Joe Biden Wants to Take America Back to a Time Before Trump"
Why? Were things any better under Obama/Biden?
"Suit alleges illegal strip search of boy, 13, at Round Lake school"
https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-suit-alleges-illegal-strip-search-of-13yearold-at-round-lake-school-20121004-story.html
"Court rules it was legal for jail guards to force female inmates to strip, remove tampons for training exercise"
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/453920-court-rules-it-was-legal-for-jail-guards-to-force-female
"County Settles Jail Strip-Search Case for $55M
More than 400 people said searches were intrusive, demeaning"
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/cook-county-jail-settlement-strip-searches-108476464.html
I hear lots of outrage about border conditions.
I hear no outrage about Americans (and American children) having their Fourth Amendment rights trampled.
1
Biden doesn’t want to take us back, don’t take the Trump & media bait. Stay focused, eyes on the prize - anyone but Trump 2020.
4
“Biden is in his mid 70s...”. So are Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Nancy Pelosi !
Elizabeth Warren is 70. When is the media going to stop using selective ageism against Joe Biden?y
6
The knock against the so-called progressive wing of the Democratic Party being force-fed to us by the media (MSNBC, et al) is they would "take the Party too far left...." and thereby guarantee a Trump second term.
Can we remind ourselves what too far left means? To me, in order of priority is:
1. Medicare as a Public Option (an buy in by employees and their employers) with a 10+ year plan to get to Medicare for All
2. Infrastructure improvements.
3. Real Tax and banking reforms
4. A phased-in $15/hour Federal Minimum wage (which isn't been indexed or has not been changed in many years).
5. Sane immigration reform (work permits, Dreamer path forward, repopulating rural America, etc)
I suppose all of this might seem too far left to some. That is until the next economic bubble bursts, we reach yet another banking crisis, or another bridge or dam gives way.
I fear the enthusiasm for Joe Biden, a gentleman and true public servant, is more of a vote against Trump and not a vote for anything but safety. That type of energy and enthusiasm can evaporate in the blink of an eye, a stock market bump or a quarterly 401(k) report.
13
@Dirk But what is wrong with voting for safety? Surely it's better than four more years of insanity.
3
@Dirk
If Obama hadn't sold us out to the corporate health care interests, you would have had your #1 priority already.
Why does the Democratic Party always compromise with the right? Why don't they compromise with the progressives?
I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, and I voted for the third-party candidate in every presidential election since, until 2016.
I voted third-party to send a message to the Democratic Party: We're suffering. If you don't help, we won't vote for you. You'll lose more voters moving to the right than you will moving to the left. It took them a long time to figure that out. http://inthesetimes.com/article/7080/was_rahm_right
Because the Democratic Party at least gave me a chance to vote for a progressive, I voted for Hillary at the end. If Bernie Sanders hadn't urged us, I would have voted for Jill Stein.
"Better than Trump" is a pretty low bar. The best we can hope from a Biden presidency is that he will undo some of the damage he's done. At least Sanders gave us a vision, that progressives like AOC will be able to implement after he's gone.
3
Joe Biden is very sharp, I spoke with him last week. Restoring our Government is job for a pro. He let me know that many political refugees will soon arrive from Venezuela due to Trump's half-hearted coup there. Biden has the gravitas to arrange a Western Hemisphere plan to share the load of refugees, that currently are arriving at our border. The amateurs want "reparations" and other concepts, like busing, that are vastly unpopular. We need not trot out every unproven gimmick to attract a niche vote. We have our pro, who paired with Senator Warren(?) would win this contest we can not loose.
10
Biden appeals to some of my conservative friends who are embarrassed by Trump. Democrats have to focus on electability or Trump will be in for four or perhaps even eight more years. If Joe can just get out there and prove he can campaign he may be the one witht he best chance to beat Trump.
10
Has it occurred to the New York Times, that should Biden
get the nomination, his choice of running mate will be his pick for the future of the Democratic party? I believe that Biden intends to be a one term president. I think he can win and I know he will pick the right person to govern with him.
The Democrats cannot win with the far left platform of Sanders, Warren and Harris. I want us to win - and Biden can do it.
10
I love Joe. But the reality is Trump has damaged America. We need a big change so we can heal and move forward.
3
@Mary
Agreed, but, unfortunately, the need to decontaminate the White House outweighs other considerations by far. I don't know if it's Biden, but Democrats should try to figure it out quickly and unite behind the best candidate.
1
Sadly the Democrats became filled with identity politics in their platform and ideas. Outside of government provided social programs, what are they offering? You can not address climate change within calling out the world's biggest polluters, China and India. Democrat leaders are timid when dealing with other countries that are most responsible for carbon emissions.
5
You set an example. You know, "leadership"? Remember that, America? I hear you, we have the same problem here, an government of conservative Murdoch/News apparatchiks who are still spruiking the fossil fuels mined by their biggest donors, but we have to keep at them, unrelenting.
China happens to have a widely burgeoning environmental movement, and they're getting better all the time. The same will happen in India - once people have a job, can feed their family, have a flushing toilet, and hot-water on tap, they start to notice things like pollution and other degradations, and they start to complain about them to government. They need to force their government to listen, and the only place they listen is at the ballot box.
1
There will never be a "time before Trump" except in nostalgic fantasy. What is done cannot be undone.
6
I think that Ms. Harris needs to attack Speaker Pelosi for actually speaking to the President and to his henchman in negotiating deals. Has Speaker Pelosi no conscience for allowing herself to associate herself with these vile people merely to get compromise legislation passed? (This is meant to be sarcastic and ironic in response to the so-called progressives. I was an actual progressive in the late 40's and the 50's but the current crop of progressive seem as though they are being programmed to reelect Trump.)
5
@JerryV I think the opposite: the Democrats need to stop the circular firing squad, unite their party and appeal to what citizens of all types want: health care, decent jobs and sanity.
It's the election that matters.
Pelosi is a savvy leader and is right to curtail the strident left progressives who turn off even me.
It's the election that matters.
2
@Dr. M
Right?
It certainly wasn't the brown children in Trumps Interment Camps that mattered. Pelosi and Blue Dog/moderates rammed thru a Senate funding bill in the house of $4.6 billion dollars without a single debate, amendment or stipulation on behalf of those children under our care; they are being molested, traumatized, terrorized, sickened and dying in conditions we don't allow dogs in pounds to live in.
THIS is what the *squad* was defending. THIS is what moderate Dems sold out.
Our savvy leader and moral moderates couldn't lift a finger or attempt to try.
Just shrug and go along to get along. Give the monsters more money to ruin these children.
Sure, its the strident left who turn you off.
Because child molesters need appeasment and funding.
This is your version of sanity. Got it.
Good bye Democratic Party.
1
There is the saying, "Do not throw the baby out with the bath water". What has been missing in US politics is a good hearted person who has the ability to connect with others and other countries. What we badly need now, is a president who can sit down with the leaders of the free world, pass out a figurative chill pill and discuss their families before they get down to business. Yes, this is "old style", the kind of "old style" my dad had when he did not just hire administrative assistants, but got to know their families, helped them out and encouraged them to "get ahead". Look at what is happening with North Korea, Iran, China...and the list goes on. We need a president who has been around the block and can de-escalate all the conflictual situations in this country and around the world. Yes, perhaps a woman candidate can do this, but many people want someone tried and true in these scary and fractious times.
8
Joe Biden is certainly a decent man, and I appreciate this profile. What concerns me deeply is his apparent commitment to a bipartisanship and comity that no longer exists. This is after the eight years of relentless back-stabbing and bad faith in which the GOP operated during the Obama years. He seems to believe that he can "work across the aisle" with a Republican party that is openly working to sabotage and destroy the working of our government, to undermine the rule of law, and open our elections and national security to interference by the Russians.
I've been waiting my entire adult life for the Democratic party to actually work on behalf of the middle class and working people. (For the record, Bill Clinton didn't aggressively move the party "toward the center" - he shifted it to the right). I'm sick of the waiting, the endless "compromising", the selling out, the "wait and see", as income inequality soars, quality of life craters, and the planet burns.
Yes, we need a restoration of normalcy and adherence to the rule of law after our current disaster, as Donald Trump is the worst president in our nation's history. However, we also need to do more than right the ship of state, we need to boldly move forward to fix the epidemic problems we face as a people and as a planet. We need to reform and strengthen the inherent weaknesses and inequities in our systems. It's not enough to restore normalcy, we need to create a better world, not "someday", but now.
9
America will never be the same after Trump’s presidency. We can never go back and undo what has been done.
3
What is Biden wanting to do, Make America Old Again? Trying to take the country back to Pre-Trump days is not going to work, you can't just put it back, because it not just Trump, it's also the leftist Democrats that have moved on, and are not going to go back. He has to find new or updated solutions for the new environment if he were to have any chance.
2
The first and foremost thing on the agenda is to get rid of Trump or we will not have a country in four years. For those of us that collectively realize this, we will have to make a compromise on who we want in the Democratic party to take on Autocrat Trump. Nobody is perfect or has all of the traits or policies that we seek in a candidate. The key word here is "compromise" and we must be willing to accept it in order to defeat the dangerous demagogue that is currently in the White House.
7
Progressives are largely banking on being able to have their cake and eat it too. In other words, their thinking seems to be that they can set up ideological policy purity tests - e.g. free healthcare for illegal immigrants and then still beat Trump based on the Biden suitability theory - i.e. that voters will vote for a very liberal candidate because they're that disgusted with Trump.
There are a few flaws in the theory, though. First, given the size of the field, the primary is not likely to be resolved until relatively close the general election. That short window of time will make it hard to backpedal from stated intentions to decriminalize illegal immigration, abolish private health insuramce, etc. And should one of the "progressive" candidates be chosen, the Democratic Party will be all in on boosting turnout among young liberal voters, meaning they'll need to harp on these issues rather than downplay them.
That's where it gets problematic. People's support for Medicare for all drops below 40% when they're told that it would abolish private insurance or raise their taxes (in all likelihood it would do both). Free healthcare for illegal immigrants is a similar non-starter. The way to lose to a guy with an approval rating in the low 40s is to run a candidate who's campaign is based on implementing policies that only 1/3 of the country wants. Biden isn't the candidate of the future but he's the candidate who can repair the damage Trump has done.
7
Simply, yes.
We need a reset and a chance to decide what "forward" is with a clear mind, without Trump.
I do not like that progressives are trying to use Trump as an excuse to shove forward an untested, not always well thought out agenda that many Americans are uncertain of.
Change will be longer lasting if it is gradual and has broad by in from the general population.
4
Why can's we all just agree that Trump is doing a stellar job. If republicans promise not to laugh at you for your 2016 vote can you please just get on the Trump train and help make America great again.
1
I’m 60, nope. Warren bc Wall Street fears her. She has policies that make sense.
7
Not great, but then Trump wants to turn us back to a time before FDR.
2
@Dave in A2
More like a time before the 1900's.
1
First thing; no matter who the Democratic nominee is, everyone needs to rally around them, otherwise we get stuck with 4 more years of Trump and if that were to happen America will be warped into something unrecognizable.
That said, all the candidates, including Biden, need to offer well-thought out plans to help the middle-class, the poor, and repair our nation's image as well as our crumbling infrastructure. Reviewing someone's history is fine, but the next candidate needs to 'look forward' not backward to lead this country out of its current corrupt-morass and into a better future.
4
The Tea Party has pulled the Republicans away from the interests of the majority. The self proclaimed Progressives pull the Democrats away from the majority.
5
You want to keep things basically the same, vote for Biden. He is Republican lite. If he is elected instead of an ultra right coup moving fast, what is going on now, we'll get a slow movement rightward. There's a few positives I think he would do. Put some environmental regulations back that are being gutted. He said he would get back into the Iran deal. Immigration would be a bit kinder & gentler, but what else? The insurance companies will still rule health care, which will just keep getting worse. He won't legalize or take pot off the schedule one list. The defense budget will still keep climbing. It will basically be the seem old thing. ..... In reading this article beside the folksie Biden's a good guy thing, what struck me is how many times he has said he made mistakes or regrets what he did. More than what he doesn't. I personally don't think Biden is very smart. The whole touchy feely thing really bothers me, esp because I think Trump will use it.... Elizabeth Warren is the best candidate. She will always try to do the right thing. And I think she can win. The poor NYTimes doesn't know what to do this time around. Who are they going to push for? I think they will endorse Biden because he keeps all their vested interests safe. Warren will upset the apple cart, and even though they know she's best, that scares them. Almost as much as Bernie scares them.
6
Joe Biden just doesn't get it. The time before Trump is what gave us Trump! All the insider dealing, veiled and veiled compromises with racism and misogyny, the destruction of the middle class in the name of capitalist, globalist efficiency - all of it. It's Trumpism's raison d’etre. How can returning to the age of Mad Men. Vietnam, the S&L crises, Anita Hill, junk bonds and bank bailouts possibly make sense to anyone other than a tired old out of touch White guy who should have left the public stage ages ago? No Mr. Biden, you might be a nice guy to have a beer with but I'd prefer to vote for someone who will lead us into a better future rather than salve whatever nostalgic aches we have for a past that exists only in our collective imagination.
6
@mather
We need the old white guys - and the young white guys, who also mainly voted for Trump. We can have Warren or Harris as VP, for the future.
It's the election, nothing else, that matters in the short run.
1
I believe most folks in this country long for; statesmanship, civility, decency, integrity and personal character that was the foundation of our political past until the current administration. While Biden is the most qualified to restore those values, his ideas will need to also reflect on the challenges of the future. Frankly, anyone in the world is better than the banana republic dictator wannabe currently occupying the White House. (and no, I did not vote for Hillary)
4
Joe Biden is the Democrats’, and the country’s only hope of avoiding four more years of Trump, followed by eight years of Ivanka, with all the horrors, including press restrictions, that would entail.
If the Democrats had a spine and a smart strategy, they would do this: Call all the candidates in for a come-to-Jesus meeting, and tell them, thanks but no thanks. Order O’Rourke, Hickenlooper and Bullock to run for Senate, tell everyone else to stand down and support the ticket: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They’d have to tell Harris to zip it and agree to be the progressive member of the ticket.
And this has to happen now. Biden is the only person who can win against Trump, and even then it will be close. What he wants to do is bring back not some fictional MAGA past, but the norms of the pre-2017 USA: A force for good, a beacon for refugees, the world’s last best hope.
What we have now is a one-party, extremist right-wing state, and it’s just going to get worse unless we stop them now.
Biden and Harris, now, plus an all-out push to retake the Senate. Otherwise, we’re just a big Hungary.
1
Many say that not voting for Biden, if he's the Dem nominee, is equivalent to voting for Trump. Not so. Have we learned nothing from the Mueller report? Russia has already chosen Trump and we are doing nothing about that thanks to Mitch & Co. If the Dems want my vote, they have to choose someone worthy of it. Joe Biden is not that person.
3
Fiffie,
Let me get this straight. You state that Russia is already biasing the vote toward Trump. And not voting for any Democrat is not a vote for Trump? So you are just giving up, or what?
I don't think it's about who is good and or who is appropriate. Not for the next forever, bar the nostalgia; it is about who can and will deal with conservative republicans on their terms.
Even if Biden were elected he will have the same issues Obama had because the conservative republicans have motivations that are profound compared to those of liberal democratic ideology.
Biden is a part of the establishment; the part hoping to elect someone respectable. Unfortunately even if he is elected it will be dirty tricks as usual which means more years of delusion.
The new America is about accommodating human nature, we have been launched out of the fantasy that America is a place of principals into a future where principals do not matter.
The legacies of the Clinton's, the Bush's and Trump's current behavior should teach you something.
Goodbye to post WW ll idealism and Welcome to the Street Fighter who uses any opportunity to advance themselves and the profits generated by it.
Whether it's having illicit sex in the back of a limo, invading another nation or enriching yourself financially, principals and the subsequent values only matter to those who have them.
Human Nature can be profoundly perverse, it is also malicious when challenged, it is never reasonable.
Joe has my vote. We need to get into the Paris Climate agreement and finally ban coal and fossil fuel use. Look at the world automobiles companies yesterday siding with California a Democratic state . They want stricter pollution controls. They don’t want oversized log burners in Europe from America. With 110 degrees in Paris today they know it is from fossil fuel damage these dangerous temps. Will only get worse with the GOP /Trump in charge.
4
Biden is right about one thing. The 2020 elections will indeed be a "battle for the soul of America,” whoever the Democratic POTUS candidate is. Only time will tell whether Biden has the stamina, courage, and poise to win over his increasingly progressive party, especially the young, AOC generation. My bet is on Elizabeth Warren, whose fight, righteousness, and policy plans are exactly what most Democrats are yearning for. Will American succumb to Trump's hateful, neo-fascist demagoguery or reclaim its sense of moral decency and justice? The choice will be stark, and guess who the Russians and America's own greedy oligarchs will be backing?
4
There are some thing’s I wouldn’t want back. But the country that could dream things and do things and make things? Yeah, I’d take that over whatever we have now.
1
As a 67-year-old women, I have a lot of reservations about Joe Biden, mainly his age. His gray complexion was mentioned and next to the gaudy showman that is Trump, he may appear “faded.” However, that may be a plus in regards to older voters who apparently vote more reliably. I would prefer someone younger, more energetic, or someone like Elizabeth Warren, but no candidate is going to beat Trump running on open borders and Medicare for all. How can they even think they can? The next debate will be interesting for sure.
3
The time before trump led to trump. Let's not go there.
2
That's just not how this works. You never go back. There is only forward. We need to stop electing old men who want to return things to how they were in their youth. Nostalgia is a powerful drug, but it is a lie. We do not have the ability to time-travel.
2
So Biden can act like every other "democrat who has been in office in the last 50 years. Place hold while the republican party moves the country to the right with each presidency. Biden can hold us here so the right can start starching their hoods. This country needs to move to the left for once. It has not done so since Roosevelt.
1
The voter extortion game known as "lesser evilism" guarantees a perpetuation of all that is wrong--permanent surrender to the MIC and the 1%. We are told that the most important thing is that Trump be defeated, when in actuality, it is the system itself--the duopolistic system--that needs to be defeated. As the petition linked below states, Trump is America's ugly baby--and our culture and political system have given him birth. He is not an anomaly, just more transparent, much, much rougher at the edges. But the tyranny, less well disguised, continues. It is as important for us to replace the system as it is important to defeat Trump. Here is a progressive ultimatium to be delivered to Pelosi, Perez and the DNC before the Democratic convention. Find it here, change org:
http://chng.it/qGfJRXVpRs
It doesn’t bother me that Biden got some legislation passed with a couple of segregationists, if it was good legislation, although, even there, that appears not to have been the case. What bothers me is his complete lack of appreciation of the milieu in which he now finds himself. Anyone who has read a few books or paid any attention to Washington politics should know by now that the Republican playbook is “winner take all, no compromises, leave no prisoners.” Biden still thinks the Senate (an inherently undemocratic institution that heavily favors small state rural Republicans) is a bastion of civility populated by wise older statesman who “let the tea cool in the saucer” as Harry Reid puts it, has got rocks in his head. He is hopelessly out of touch and has no place leading a country whose very survival depends on turning back the wave of deliberately ignorant know-nothingism represented by the Republican Party. Republicans have nothing to gain by bipartisanship. They are a minority party dedicated to furthering the greedy, bigoted, religiously narrow interests of a minority of the population. Their task is not to govern or cooperate but to hold power by any means possible and to defeat opposition at every turn. Joe Biden’s longing to return the Senate to an exclusive club of elder statesman is symptomatic if his fey ebullience. It may have served him well in weathering the unspeakable tragedies that have dogged his life, but it is totally unsuited to the presidency.
1
I was born in 1948.
Is that considered "a time before Trump"?
Through the decades I've watched the Democrat Party shed group after group, sometimes giving them openly to the right (like Unions) because they were tired of all the infighting.
They handed off the rights of Women to the religious faction of America because they weren't too clear on what the religious definition of a human being was (it is "breathing").
It handed the Poor over when Bill Clinton said he was going to "end welfare as we know it". Well, that was lovely, but he didn't, nor did he intend to end "poverty".
It tossed out the concept of "equal access" to Education.
When it has fought for medical care (any) it has let every other need of Americans go by. Ditto for fighting for the kids in cages. Why is protecting the legal right's of children being tortured by filth, thirst, lice and hunger, dooming millions of citizens to losing SNAP?
Pelosi has made some rotten deals lately.
She did the last time, too, letting Bush and Cheney off with not one investigation of their crimes.
The Democratic Party has a "natural alliance".
It is everyone other than the top 10%, the 1% and the tax-exempt religions.
Those groups already have defenders: The Republicans, the Libertarians and priests.
And, Biden was there all along.
He is one of the reasons that, I, an American woman, am not equal within the Constitution.
Trump is simply the end-game of all these years.
You're going to need a bigger boat, Dems.
ERA NOW!
3
No, America does not want to go backward! They want to go Forward. Andrew Yang for President 2020!
I want to see Americans elect a female President. Hasn't enough damage been done at the hands of greedy, power hungry men? The ideas for restoring democracy to America are coming from women. My personal choice is Elizabeth Warren who has detailed plans. Show me the plans. Everything else is noisy air.
1
" At campaign stops, Biden asks members of the audience if they have lost loved ones to cancer. The show of hands — and numerous hands go up — provides a segue for him to talk about cancer research, but it also serves to establish a unique connection. " This is such manipulative exploitation.
Does he go on to ask how many have a son who became the lover of his dead brother's wife? I don't like to discuss that but I've had it with "God bless you." Joe and Saint Beau.
Stick to the issues, today's and tomorrow's. Better yet, drop out and give space to forward-looking candidates.
3
“In the late ’90s, MBNA hired his son Hunter out of law school; after he left the company, it paid him a $100,000 annual retainer to advise it on internet issues, an arrangement that lasted from 2001 to 2005.”
That’s hilarious!
1
@Thomas Martin
In 2011 Chelsea Clinton was paid $600,000/year by NBC as a "special correspondent". This ended in 2014 when her mother's running became an issue. She switched to a month-to-month contract.
Say what you will about Trump, but Ivanka and Jared earn their money. They actually know a thing or two about business, and are not paid because they are "famous".
1
Please remember that before Trump we had the Iraq War. Biden not only supported it, he banged the drums for it, as he was the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He became one of Bush's most loyal allies in this atrocity.
No, I don't want to go back to an era when voting for yet another unconscionable war is done so cavalierly and with so little thought to its consequences.
We will no longer accept phony apologies from the likes of Biden and Hillary and Kerry after witnessing so much carnage. NO.
Sanders understood even then the wide-ranging consequences of such an act of war and gave an impassioned speech against it. Unfortunately the warning was not heeded, and here we are yet again.
Yes, the "good old days." How stupid do they think we are?
1
It's not Trump.
The U.S. is the most unequal of advanced nations.
Americans are taxed to spend as much as the whole rest of the world on things military.
American infrastructure is crumbling while others build high speed rail.
More Americans are in jail than the citizens of any other country. Mostly over marihuana.
The list goes on, with conservative Christians pushing us over the ledge.
Ready for revolution, yet?
2
Joe Biden is the ONLY democratic candidate who can unseat Pres. Trump
If the Democratic Party isn’t smart enough to rally around Joe, you have no one to blame but yourselves.
Joe Biden or Bust!
3
“ in the 90s Clinton moved the party to the center“ What drivel. Clinton moved the party to the right, and here we are today paying for it.
2
Defeating Trump is all that matters. End of story.
1
Biden may or may not be a good Dem candidate, but he isn’t going to win over many Trump supporters and he is both naive and arrogant to think so.
2
If it comes down to a Biden:Trump battle I think Biden will win handily. BUT... Is Biden really the best choice for president? Is he?
Set aside for a moment that yet another old white dude is aiming for the presidency and ponder that the best he can do is that we need to make America great again by returning to a pre-Trump utopia. C'mon now. A Warren/Harris ticket could (at lest in theory) transform the US into something far more ambitious.
1
Wanting to take America back to the time before Trump is like saying you want to go back to the time before the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. What you'll have is a tinder box ready to burn.
2
Biden wants to return to the time when African-Americans turned out in record numbers to vote for the first African-American president, and many democrats did the same. Let's call it the "Obama Effect".
1
What's amazing is that The Press+Liberals+Democrats+New Urban Socialists keep saying the Democrat party is younger than Republicans?
Need I say more?
2
this is what i love about politics now: it's time machine politics, but not a time machine into the future, but into the past.
whose past, and where and when, and why we would want to go there, these are questions open to the kind of debate that only professional presidential hopefuls are able to tackle -- but assuredly, people -- we all want to go into the past, right? isn't the past where we were all born?
"oh, the challenge of climate change is too large, too portentous, too significant for me to tackle! i am only a poor voter! let me have my corn chips, my selfies, my media channels, my facebook wall -- they you can do what you want, i shall be content!"
corporations say: "we have acquired your land, conquered your economy, bought our way into every intimate crack and hole of your government ... and joe is our man, he will never 'surprise' us!"
1
Returning the US to the “way we were” before Trump in what sense? Civility? Yes. A Bi-partisan Congress? Yes. Truth and Trust from and for our elected leadership? Yes. Respect for our Constitution, Rule of Law and our Democracy? Yes. One Nation pulling together for our common good? Yes, hopefully.
Biden cannot accomplish these things himself. I presume he could set an example. We need an energetic FRESH face to rearrange our priorities and it will not happen overnight.
3
I’m voting for Biden because he’d make a good president and has a chance of leading us toward healing. It hurts my heart to hear people dismiss him because of age. I don’t mind if he isn’t a speed talker. I want a decent person whose character and integrity has been deepened by loss, who deals with life in grace, and who respects Americans and the office.
6
I'll vote for Joe Biden if he's the candidate in the general election but I don't want to return to a time before Trump.
I want to move forward; that's why I am voting for Warren in the primary.
10
Looking through a rearview window is not a healthy way to drive or lead. Keep an eye on it yes, but it can not, and should not, determine what's ahead. You can't go backwards. MAGA was a hoax, and has proven that. The world is changing rapidly. More rapidly than ever. There is no return to what or where we were. That doesn't mean principles and ethics. Those are eternal. Those are conscious, and ideally, collective choices and principles. We can as a society, try to unify who we are and what we stand for, but we can not return to any gold old days, that's a form of hiding and denial.
8
I appreciate the way the article brings out that Biden has many positives and indirectly that he might be too old to be President.
Like Joe, I am a 76 year old man and lost my son to brain cancer. Age may bring experience and some wisdom but you lose a step and even a word or two when you need it most, as we saw with Mueller. The ongoing grief of losing a grown-son (mine was almost 20) can bring an empathy and a deeper understanding of the joys and sorrows of others but it is is also weighs one down at times.
Not sure the above applies to Biden and I wish him well and would vote for him if he becomes the Democratic candidate. However, I would prefer a younger candidate with more vision and vigor who could really inspire and lead the country out of this precarious and dangerous time.
12
Not sure the headline matches the content of the article, but I do not think running to the past is a winning strategy for the Democratic candidate, whoever it may be. The game changed after Trump was awarded the presidency because ~77 thousand votes were in his column in key states for the Electoral College. The truth is the Democrats did not deliver for those in the Rust Belt. I sincerely doubt Trump and his GOP enablers will either.
Something is awry in our beloved country, in the world. These times call for a new world view, one that hopefully preserves the enlightenment and respect for the rule of law.
4
It seems clear Biden would walk away with a general election against Trump but it is hard to see the more energized voters that engage in primaries showing up in large numbers for Joe. His campaign is feeling like The Jeb Bush Experience.
8
@T Montoya
If four more years of Trump doesn't energize the primary voters in the general, then they will deserve another Trump presidency.
4
We do not need retrograde policy approaches by the Democratic party.
I don't want to see the party go full tilt left by any means, but in the context of Trumpism and it's impact on Washington.. that ship sailed more then two years ago.
We need to now move forward, and in a center-left progressive manner.. not backward. Moving backward simply re-establishes the basis for which someone like Trump got elected to begin with.
8
I'm completely in support of Biden who will peel votes away from Trump in the swing states and win the general election by a big enough margin to overcome the shady vote counting and other shenanigans we know are coming. Getting Trump out is the goal and he may be the only one who can get us there.
12
From my view any candidate with the exception of Sanders is better than Trump. I just cannot forgive Sanders for the 2016 debacle. Sanders wasn’t solely responsible but he was a factor. Whatever else Hillary was a real member of the Democratic Party while Sanders just uses it when convenient. Further the knowledge that some Bernie bros crossed over to support Trump is very hard for me to accept. I will support my party’s candidate with the exception of Sanders.
10
@Christian
Not to be antagonistic but how is you refusing to support Bernie if he’s the nominee any different than Bernie supporters refusing to vote for Hillary?
2
I will definitely vote for Biden if he wins. The bottom line to me is that trump needs to go. We are not going make that happen with a too far left leaning socialist candidate! There are middle of the road folks that won't vote for them, and we will end up with trump again. I like Elizabeth Warren's energy and her plans.
17
Nominating Biden is a sure way to get Trump a second term. Many progressives would stay home or vote third party. Many people who would be energized by a progressive candidate would stay home.
The three most progressive candidates together poll way higher than Biden.
18
@dr. c.c.-I'm not sure if that is really true. And it's not certain that the progressive wing of the party is the majority. Regardless, no candidate will win election with just the progressive wing of the party. The candidate will need the support of moderates and independents, as well.
23
@dr. c.c.
Unfortunately we have the electoral college system for presidential elections. Which means only a few states matter as the outcome is predetermined in most. I would love to see a true progressive in the WH as well, but the 2020 election will hinge on the usual factors –whoever can win the working class in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan. Biden can do that. Harris and Warren won't. As reluctant as I am to nominate someone as old and entrenched in politics as Biden is, I am convinced that he is the surest bet to beat Trump. And that's all that really matters, as 4 more years of Trump would be calamitous for the nation.
I'd been wrangling with who to support. I like several candidates. But I've decided (for now at least) that I am all in for Biden.
14
@dr. c.c.ever hear of being dead right? Throwing the baby out with bath water? That is what will happen should the Dema focus on “progressive” change regardless of the cost overall. Dems need to win 2020 for any change to occur, once holding the office then begin the “progressive” transformation. Provided that is what the majority of party members desire. Focus on the change now will splinter the party at a critical time when we need to first concentrate on winning the election
I am a middle-age white male who leans far left. I sometimes joke that I would be a Marxist, except I have children and retirement accounts.
But for me, the election is absolutely a referendum on Trump and that is why I'm leaning toward Biden, and even a Biden/Harris ticket.
The country needs Trump out of the White House which Biden seems to understand and know how to do. He would be a president of the whole country, of all Americans, and not some base or collection of tribes.
The next administration, God willing Democratic, will need to spend months and maybe years repairing Trump’s domestic divisions, regulatory damage, and draconian international policies that have made the U.S. a pariah.
Then, in 2004, we can begin looking toward more progressive candidates and policies to move the country and its people forward: Harris, Warren, Buttigieg, etc. in no particular order.
22
@Chrisinauburn Biden and Harris would be a good team. I would be happier to see a progressive but we need some of the more moderate Trump voters int he swing states to switch sides.
10
if biden wins the nomination, I will vote for him obviously. until then, elizabeth warren's record, work ethic, and vision have my support!
38
@cory
I respect your opinion, but I am supporting the candidate who's policies Warren is copying.
Who will finish the work started by FDR...
Bernie 2020
1
I’m curious: do any of the self-styled progressives have examples of progressive candidates who won election in 2018, running in a district that WASN’T deep blue?
This just in, folks: Cambridge, Portland and San Fran are NOT the whole world.
34
@Robert
We lost with Dukakis, Kerry, Gore and Clinton. All middle of the road establishment Dems.
@Robert Cambridge, Portland and San Fran are not the places that suffer most from Trump or from the weak incremental progress made under the corporate apologists know as the DFL. I think we are better off long term with Trump, if we cannot get real progressive leadership.
I suspect progressives should leave the democratic party and form a third party, because democrats are gullible, weak and own by the corporations.
1
Agree with David Plouffe point of view or AOC’s?
I will go with Plouffe who was so effective and strategic in President Obama’s campaign. He has the experience of analyzing and implementing a winning campaign. Thank you for this article on Joe Biden. I believe-I know-he’s the only one to beat Trump and will serve for the common good of all of our country. He has my support and vote.
14
@Traci Biden is Hillary 2.0, same ole policies that got us to this point as a country, and will get the same result.
Wow you know something that cannot be known! How wonderful! Typical centrist.
America before Trump was the America that elected Trump. It's the America lead by a generation obsessed with power and wealth. That valued their own interests above all else. Look where that's got us.
17
@CurtisJames
I think people forget that Trump didn’t happen in a vacuum. There are reasons we are where we are and ignoring those is what will get us 4 more years of Trump.
@CurtisJames No, the Dems failed to provide a candidate that the swing votes could accept. Hillary did not lose because she was a woman, she lost because of her husband, the questions surrounding their foundation, the appearance that she was part of the old guard. Obama wins that election easily if he was eligible. I would have voted for him and I am a Republican. As it was I ended up doing a write-in as I could not bring myself to vote for either of the party options.
Dems could get my vote if the platform presented is more even but with what is being presented now with "free" everything, open borders, magically everything gets paid for by just taxing the wealthy and corporations (does anyone within the Democratic hierarchy actually understand math?), and 100% socialized medicine my vote cannot go that way. I am no fan of Trump but the Democratic platform scares me even more.
1
@CurtisJames
Could not have said it better my self!
Progressives need to get with the program this time around. Joe Biden would make a perfect president for these times that we're in; he embodies all that is best in American politics, including a wealth of national and international experience that no other Democratic candidate can offer right off the bat. And he would unite and start the healing process for our sadly Trump-battered nation better than any other candidate. Think deeply about what we need and what we can reasonably accomplish, and don't shoot for pie-in-the-sky nonsense that isn't attainable, as Bernie Sanders supporters did in 2016.
17
@A.K.G.
It was Hillary that ran against Trump not Bernie.
1
@A.K.G. Progressives, Independents, and Millennials are not the ones who need to 'get with the program', as in, I assume, fall in line with the dictated, pre-anointed candidate, Biden as Clinton 2.0, regardless of how the same ole, tired policies that prop up the increasing oligarchy and corporatist neoliberal policy that gave us the worst inequality, dynastic, obscene levels of wealth accumulation from strip mining what is left of the middle class from every aspect of our lives?
You mean, fall in line to vote for more of that?
No, thank you. That's simply not going to happen. Again.
1
@A.K.G.
Keep in mind.. Joe and Trump share one very dangerous quality in the context of a general election candidate:
They are both gaffe machines who constantly shoot themselves in the foot. What makes Trump even more dangerous though.. is he appears to be both immune to self-inflicted wounds AND wears teflon.
Joe.. Joe falls down every time he shoots himself in the foot with a gaffe. And Joe clearly does not wear teflon.
A general election for president IS going to bring out plenty of gaffes in the lead up to voting day. In this regard.. Joe shares common, and bad, traits with hillary in the context of a candidate.
1
I think that a challenge for Trump that is continually left out is the fact that he is not running against Hillary Clinton. How many people voted for Trump, not because they liked him, but because they despised Clinton (whether justly or un justly)? I don't believe there is a single Democratic candidate with that problem.
Biden is not my first choice, but I believe in a realist sense he is the correct one. However, he needs Pete Buttigieg to be his Vice President. Buttigieg is almost unconscionably intelligent, dedicated, progressive, young, and capable of bringing in youth voters that stay home because they, justifiably, see no candidate that speaks to them. Biden can go after the baby boomers who still think they are the only generation capable of getting anything done, and Buttigieg can set his way for leading the US, and the World, into the next generation.
21
@Billy
Even though Biden has better charisma then Hillary (which is important in a general election for president), he does carry many of Hillaries other liabilities as well.. the most significant being.. he, like her, is terrible at campaigning.
1
Pete Buttigieg is my first choice but he would be a great VP for Biden!
@Billy
I like Pete as well - but 2 White guys? How about Kamala Harris in the number 2 spot. Still young, smart, articulate, from the West Coast, etc., And Pete is young enough to run in eight ( or 16) years.
1
It will be difficult for me and my family to vote for Biden. He does not support Medicare for All and he will do nothing to relieve the burden of student debt.
12
Nor does Trump support those things. Biden will probably come around, especially if Congress helps. Trump will never come around. Remember that not voting in 2020, or voting for a third party, is the same as voting for Trump.
9
@Zejee. I am sorry to say but Medicare for all will never pass and is not the right strategy to address the problem. The best option in my humble opinion is a public option that competes with private insurers and brings cost down for all. Expanding Obamacare is the right approach. I am happy to be convinced otherwise but no one has given a single compelling reason why it is a good idea for everyone who has insurance now to give it up and go with the government option.
9
@Zejee
Medicare for All is a third rail in a presidential election.
It works well in select congressional and senate elections, but it's a huge land mine in the presidential race.
Student debt burden.. is a complex and difficult issue to address by anyone.. and I'm not sure it really plays well as a priority in a presidential contest. Student debt, for example.. should not just be forgiven.. as that flies in the fact of financial accountability. At the same time, the way this country encourages student debt, and operates on artificially high tuition requirements in both public and private education needs to be addressed with real and tangible legislation in Congress... so this is not a presidential candidate issue.. it is a congressional issue.
3
People believe that Biden is the best choice against Trump based on current polling and the idea that he will attract working class whites. Polling is unreliable and results can change rapidly, as seen after the first debate. The key to winning the next election is to nominate a candidate that will excite the base, especially minorities and young people, just like Obama. This will require bold ideas and charisma. Biden is too moderate, prone to gaffs, has a lot of legislative baggage, and is a bit stuck in the past (who references mosh pits anymore?).
6
@DJ Obama also resonated with the white middle class. He was not too far left and understood that you have to take incremental steps to get to the final goal. Too many are getting caught up on "the base". Winning the White House is all about winning the swing votes.
8
@DJ
People believe a lot of different things. People also are often wrong... no matter how much they believe in their own opinion an ideology.
@DC
Obama's two great gifts as president, in my view, were 1) his intellect and thoughfulness (the antithesis of Trump) 2) his pragmatism that this country generally moves forward legislatively when it operates either center-left or center-right.. avoiding partisan extremes.
2
Returning to the time before Trump, only guarantees that we will have another Trump in the future.
Biden is not the future of the Democratic Party.
19
@Patrick
Exactly!
People need to set their personal ideologies aside and embrace the fact that if you set up repeat conditions.. it will result in repeat outcomes.
In his nearly 50 year political career, Joe Biden's contribution to civil society has been a smile and a shoeshine, nothing more.
Trump has blown up the past. There is nothing to go back to. We need to build a new future and Biden is not the one to do that.
Liz Warren is the only candidate who has a clear vision for a future America.
19
@Jack be Quick Bernie will help us finish the work FDR started.
Excellent thinking and writing. I was for Biden before the Times began to write more in depth articles about who he really is. I like him. No one is perfect, but he is genuine and that is extremely important. He operates from his core and I think his decisions as Senator and candidate are as genuine as he is--they come from introspection about issues he cares about. No one in the race has the ability to challenge Trump as he does and no on in the race can beat Trump as he can. I can only imagine how feisty he will be in the debates with Trump and I can only imagine how much empathy his followers and others riding the fence will feel what Trump launches his tirades and plays the bully against this man. Go Joe! the country needs you desperately. Like the article says, we are all very sad in our current state of this country.
11
The Dems are more interested in this newly found orthodoxy of the left - a Dem/socialist marriage. And what they fail to realize is that the country is governed right of center. So how does this work out for the candidates and the party? And most importantly for the voters. Well... right now, the Dems are blasting each other for not being socialist. And Trump is enjoying the fracas.
7
@marrtyy 100 percent agree.
@marrtyy Not at all, the country is left of center on every polling issue! Why it looks right of center is that because of the electoral college, and two senators per state regardless of size makes it so that the government is slanted right of center.
The elephant in the room is Biden's age, and he will be inundated with charges from his fellow prospective candidates with code phrases about his age like out of touch, not forward looking enough, and others, long before a potential face off with Donald Trump. With the defeat of Trump being paramount, I hope neither Biden or anyone else viable enough to win honestly doesn't get damaged badly enough before the general election by their own party that all Trump has to do is recycle ammunition provided to him on a silver platter that he doesn't even have to develop the attack adds himself. I am defining viable enough to win honestly, that is by putting forth positions not gathered up in a pandering frenzy that are just a different set of hollow promises from the present white house occupant. Biden is likely in the small number of contenders that can send Trump packing, so my hope is that no one in that category gets kneecapped by their own side in the next set of debates.
6
The author makes an assumption based on a fallacy that "coastal" columnists always make of the midwest...That our politics are defined and controlled by white, working class men.
Visit the farms and factory floors in Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio. They are a cultural and racial mash-up of African, Asian, European and American heritage( North, Central and South). Hmongs work next to East Africans and Hondurans, and, yes, "white men". As do men and women with all gender identities. And it's clear from our side of the fence that we all, collectively, have been marginalized by the Republicans and pandered to by Democrats in the past several decades.
So kudos to Joe Biden for articulating a position that listens to this population and seeks out their concerns and needs. It's about time someone did. Democrats may discover, as the author brushes aside, that there's more to the Midwest then whiteness.
7
No Joe, your time has passed. The US needs saving drastically. Our nation has frittered away any post WWII advantage since 1980 through not addressing health care, comprehensive affordable education through post grad and professional levels, workers rights and the needs of a decent society. All has been donated to the corporations and ultra-rich. Drastic change is needed for survival. Warren-Buttegieg.
4
@P Wilkinson
I don't think Buttegieg has nearly enough experience, and I don't trust that he won't cater to oligarchic interests, or have the capacity or will to heal the country on race.
If Warren had been sincere in being a Progressive, she would have broken with Clinton, who attempted to atomize the momentum of the Progressive movement, and endorsed Bernie.
Bernie has set the agenda that Warren is self-servingly, disingenuously copying now.
Bernie is the one inspiring Progressives, Independents, and Millennials, again. Warren should help him, and all of the country, and actually, the world, who still prefers we join their quality of life and lead the world on Climate Change, by electing a Sanders presidency.
That wold be a belated, but most patriotic thing she could do.
3
@P Wilkinson That ticket would ensure Trump's re-election.
1
@Lilly Bernie will not get the middle votes he needs to win, period. You might love his fire and extreme positions but that only guarantees a loss in 2020.
1
Biden, nice guy, but he can't admit that his time is long past. Perhaps ambition is stronger than common sense. This is sad, but what is more dispiriting is to see that Biden is leading in the polls among the other Democratic candidates.
Yes, let us all march backwards along with Biden and the entire Democratic establishment. The Republican Party already went backwards to the 20th century and before; therefore, the Democratic Party must follow the Republicans and retreat happily along. What a disaster is to sit here and contemplate what is happening to America. Have the Democrats wear MAGA hats, just make the hats blue to indicate the difference at least in the colors.
5
To the time when Ronald Reagan started dismantling an America for all in favor of an America dedicated to making rich people richer?
Of course, anything without Trump would be a vast improvement.
7
@Grove
How would Biden be any better, when he is an integral part of what got us here?
@Grove Funny that you forget that since Reagan the Dems ran the White House for 16 years but the revisionist view seems to be that only Republcans have run this country since 1980.
1
I don’t understand the illusion about “safe candidates”. Elections are won when you excite the crowds. Trying win people, if not wooed, that would vote for Trump is a lost cause anyway.
3
@Malin But you also have to excite enough people who are heterogeneous in their political views.
Should Joe Biden get the nomination, I have no doubt he will travel the length and breadth of America tirelessly sowing the seeds of apathy.
This 71-year old Marine knows we can do better. We have to.
14
@jim allen
You are right.
The gilded, increasing oligarchy of this country will thank Biden richly, as they have Obama, for working on their behalf to increase their obscene levels of wealth accumulation.
I pray Biden doesn't get shoved down our throats again, like they did with Clinton.
Woke Democrats need to awaken. Anyone believing that Kamala Harris is a sure shot to win the Presidency in 2020 is blind to the America that is as compared to the America that they want it to be. After watching Elizabeth Warren speak to a group of WV voters, deep in the hills, I was impressed how she talked to them as if they were her neighbors rather than trying to stir them up. I'm impressed but yet unsure. Joe Biden would be a transitional President, healing the wounds and repairing the damage, the terrible damage from Donald Trump and his band of outlaw and traitorous Republicans. No, profound innovation would not be his mark. But our psyches and our house need soothing and repair
before that.
10
Take America back. That just does not sound inspiring. Back is exactly what got us Trump in the first place. Dems more beholden to Wall Street than Main Street.
5
What we need is a candidate that will take us forward and make sure that Trump or another version of him never gets in.
1
the buck stops here: the Democrats are not going to get back the supposedly key middle aged and older white working class male voters in the rust belt states who voted for Trump in 16. the cat is already out of the bag on that one; Trump came along at just the right moment, and with just the right message, running against a weak candidate, (and with a little help from his friends), to normalize brewing racism and couple it with an anger and suspicion of Washington politics, to game the Electoral College. that shrinking voter segment is LOST to the Democrats. aging Biden is not going to get them back because Trump gives them a feeling of importance and agency at odds with history and the current composition of the party and the nation. they are all stuck in a past which no longer exists.
3
Joe Biden is a good man. He may have made some poor calls in the past, but come on!
If Harris and Booker are listening, please stop the attacks. This is exactly what we don’t need. We need to get Trump out of office. Period.
I don’t know what the perfect ticket is, but instead of picking each other apart, Democrats should get in a room and figure out what winning combination is going to get this country back on the rails. It’s time to lift each other up, focus on our collective strengths, and tell Trump he’s fired.
33
@Chris Lacroix Biden and Warren, decency, experience, intellect and, above all, they inspire trust. We so badly need all of the above.
2
@Chris Lacroix Biden is not my guy, but I totally agree that I would like to see the other candidates stop with the democratic cannibalism! I would rather see them run on what they can do for the country than how they can take down a fellow dem. I like Buttigieg and Warren..they are talking about exciting policies that they will do to change the country and leaving the others alone.
2
Democrat voters like you are no longer welcome. Black and brown faces aren’t either if they are not willing to tow the new far left radical agenda.
Biden trying to bring back the traditional Democratic support base into the fold. The American worker/wage earner whose best interests they sidelined over the last 40 some years to rebrand as a version of Republican Lite. He's got a big job ahead of him. Nothing less than rehabilitating his own party requiring the Democrats own up to where they went so wrong in being complicit in creating an environment that allowed the rise of the Republican right wing reign and gave the Presidency to a TV reality show host.
9
@Rose
So you want him to be a progressive?
He already said nothing would change for the rich.
Nice story about Joe Biden. For this young, non-white, female voter, there's no doubt he's the best candidate. He's got the experience, intelligence and wisdom to guide this country away from the ragged edge Trump is rocketing us toward, and is one of the few candidates I trust not to wilt in the face of what will surely be blistering attacks from the right.
37
@Aiya
No, he stumps for them over Democratic's, and takes their money.
He won't wilt, he'll sell us out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/us/politics/biden-speech-fred-upton.html
1
Biden is not espousing a progressive agenda because that's not him. What you see in Biden is what you get, and that's infinitely more appealing than who we have in office now. If Biden wins the nomination he will balance the ticket with a progressive but he will not defer to a radical left agenda, including a highly unpopular scrapping of private insurance and replacing it with Medicare for all. Someday this country may get there, but now is not the time. Now is the time to make certain Trump cannot be unleashed to wreak havoc from 2021 to 2025. Biden, more than Harris, Sanders, and Warren, can win back the states that got Trump elected: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, because he will calm their fears of losing their private health insurance. That is the single pivotal issue in the 2020 election.
38
@nzierler "...including a highly unpopular scrapping of private insurance and replacing it with Medicare for all."
Stop believing everything you read - people despise the private health insurance industry. Polling shows your above statement to be incorrect:
"55% of voters back a Medicare for All system that diminishes the role of private insurers if they retain access to their preferred providers.
"Independents are 14 points more likely to back the system when told losing their private plan would not mean losing their doctor (42% to 56%)."
https://morningconsult.com/2019/07/02/majority-backs-medicare-for-all-replacing-private-plans-if-preferred-providers-stay/
3
What is so good about private insurance? Medicare delivers better coverage. It is administered at far less cost. Private insurance’s priority is profit (which it adds to the cost of health care to the tune of billions of dollars). It excludes people on whom it does not want take a risk and can be rejected by the young who want to skip paying for coverage until they actually need it, both of which drive up the cost for everyone else.
I am really tired if this pseudo-wisdom that elevates doing nothing into to some kind of perceptive political insight. Make pharma and private insurance companies rich as Croesus if you want, but the rest of the country wants something better and is ready to move on.
By the way, even under current Medicare, you can keep the coverage under your or your spouse’s private employer-funded health plan., and Medicare Advantage is administered by for-profit health insurance companies. Why do you think they spend so much money advertising on television when Medicare doesn’t?
Get some education.
6
Ed here keeps citing that same poll, which boils down to asking, “So if you could keep your same doc and hospital and you didn’t have to pay anything...?”
Not how it works, Ed.
Vice President Biden is Democrats best hope for defeating President Donald Trump. Sen. Kamala Harris' pre-orchestrated debate attack on the Vice President was unfortunate and unfair. She understood that she was twisting the intent of his commentary on working at times with those with whom you disagree on other key issues, and also that she was dredging up for political gain old positions which Biden who has a long track record advancing Civil Rights, has long abandoned. It may have raised her profile, but it was unbecoming, and hopefully will result in his selecting a more fair-minded rival (or another Democratic leader not in the race) as his running mate in the Fall.
23
@Wesley
Kamala Harris's "debate attack" was "pre-orchestrated?"
Should she have gone on the crowded stage without preparation? Did Biden do that, or was he coached by his team on how to answer questions about . . . Anita Hill, hair sniffing, unwanted hugs, his advanced age, etc., etc., etc.?
@Wesley You are very kind in your remarks about Harris. She was despicable and I, for one, have no desire to replace one despicable with another.
1
I consider myself a progressive and would prefer Sanders or Gabbard as the Democratic presidential candidate. That being said, I would much prefer Biden to Harris or Buttigieg, and maybe even Warren. Unlike these others, Biden is running as an avowed establishment centrist. That is what all of these others are, too (even Warren to a large extent) but none of them admit it. And while it is almost certain that all of these others would moderate their supposedly "progressive" positions once they became president, with Biden there is a good chance that he will surprise everyone with a turn to the political left. I've always felt that he is at heart more liberal than he lets on.
13
@Caleb - this is what i love about the modern american electorate: triangulating what is in a candidate's "heart" and how the candidate might "surprise everyone" with a turn this way or that. isn't wishful thinking fun? and my question is: when did you ever see joe biden take a stand that "surprised everyone", that put his political career at risk? yes, joe biden can take us back in time, back to the time when voting your hopes, your wishes, your secret desires would actually affect government in the direction you desire. what a sad fairy tale that has turned out to be!
2
@Caleb
That sounds like a fairy tale. His past actions don’t yield such results.
1
great photography here, Biden can't beat Trump and would not make a better president.
12
@Zion
Fantastic photos for sure.
Biden would do a better job than the current President. At least Biden is what he says he is when it comes to his religious beliefs. Dear Zion, I still don’t understand why decent Christians support Trump when it is clear he uses Christianity as a means to his political end. Trump’s only religion is winning and for him, there are no rules of fair play. We need rules and laws for society to function otherwise we live in chaos which is what our political climate feels like under Trump. I’m not a fan.
1
@PNW
for the record, I am Jewish, liberal, and prefer Trump's policy , especially regarding Israel.
If we don’t vote for the candidate who prioritizes our climate crisis, none of this ultimately matters. Biden isn’t that candidate. Please, wake up.
19
Enjoy a 7-2 SCOTUS.
So the "again " of MAGA only worked for Trump, but now Biden's call for decency is seen as a regression. Why?
15
Tell Biden that there is no going back. The environment says so. Sentimentalists should stay at home.
16
Amen. The appropriate sentence is from Thomas Wolfe; You can't go home again. After Trump, there is no way to go but forward.
1
@T. Stone and @Sara Greenleaf You are wrong. Joe Biden is not the idiot in the WH. He will look forward, not backward, and will definitely address very urgent environmental needs.
Biden is a terrible candidate. He will lose to trump. He offers nothing new, no solutions to the problems of austerity and precarity that help fuel support for Trump. We are doomed.
16
We need a glaring opposite of Trump...a sharp younger challenging commanding voice, a visible presence of a new tomorrow. That is not Biden, and a breath of fresh air is needed. We are strangling and choking on Trump's idea of America, literally, with the fetid air we are breathing and the smell coming from the white House. We need NEW. If not now...when?
18
If Biden is trying to normalize politics, it is not going to work to get him elected. The public is being taken for granted just like with Hilary's campaign. Even Joe Scarborough a middle road conservative, was saying that to prevent Trump from winning the Dems are going to have get dirty. The Dem leadership is corrupted by money and will push Biden who is not going to change anything. Meanwhile, Trumps admin is implementing the most retrograde, tyrannical and corrupt policies. The human dynamics involved require a polar opposite that can be felt by the lay public. Biden does not project this quality.
10
@clif howell He doesn't project those qualities to those who prefer to let Joe Scarborough think for them and who are willing to jump into t's swamp. No, we do not need any more dirty politicians. We need those who will restore trust in our government and lift us out of the quagmire t has created.
There are at least 2 democrats running that have a real chance of winning and one of them is Biden. I am going to campaign for who ever wins the nomination 100 percent because this current madness has to be corrected. Can Biden do that? Yes he can.
21
Joe Biden, and any American voter possessing common sense, wants to take our country FORWARD to a time without Trump.
I was born during the Truman administration. I’m a Vietnam-era veteran.
With the possible exception of the War in
Vietnam, Trump is the worst calamity our nation has endured in my lifetime.
21
@Tom Trump is the manifestation of a nation that has been living in calamity. A generation pursuing their own self-interests. Eventually, that generation got their yuppie god elected. But Trump is not our problem, he's just a representation of our collective problems.
1
Instead of seeking to take America 'back' to another time, the candidates should be looking toward the future.
12
I have no admiration for Joe Biden whatsoever. He epitomizes the centrist Democrat from the Clinton era. Obama put a new face on Clintonism but it turned out to be the same old defeatist attitude that got us where we are today. Both Clintons are creatures of the corporate state that now runs our government. Trump will eviscerate Biden in the general election because Biden will crumble under Trump's withering attacks. If Biden wins the nomination I may not vote for the first time in my life.
8
@rodw
Because Trump is such a great president who doesn't represent the corporate state? So you prefer to let Trump win again because you don't like Biden?
1
@rodw So by not voting you are saying that 4 more years of trump would be better than a Biden presidency? I strongly believe that angry Bernie supporters not voting may have been one reason that trump was elected. Please, I beg you, vote for the Democratic candidate rather than destroying our future with trump.
1
The Democratic party needs to move forward, not backwards. This means it needs to motivate the younger generation and turn them out at the polls. Biden is not the person to do this. Focusing on a few thousand aging, white, Joe-the-plumber voters in the Midwest is not the path forward.
10
@David
The few thousand aging, white, Joe-the-plumber voters are the ones who gave Trump the edge to get elected. The younger generation threw a hissty fit. If the fours years of Trump doesn't motivate them to vote, then they will deserve another Trump term.
1
A lot of articles seem to pose the "unknowable" issue of "appeal to the center" or "turn out the base".
If the race is Bill Clinton vs. G HW Bush, this would be a reasonable question. Voters might stay home or vote third party seeing little difference between them.
It is not, however, a reasonable question with Trump in the race. Negative partisanship exists. No Democrat who ever voted is going to sit out and risk more Trump, and no one can vote twice.
The centrists have settled on Biden, and the progressives have split their vote 3.5 ways. The primaries are approximately over, and this is a good thing for the whole planet.
3
All the Democratic presidential contenders need to stand behind Biden, if they want to capture White House in 2020 Presidential Election. Because Biden is the only one who can defeat current incumbent. A ticket with Biden/ Harris ticket will be great.
10
I don’t think Biden can win. He’s a two time loser and he only says “I’m not Trump. “That’s not enough.
Biden should know that America cannot go back to a time before Trump or Obama, Clinton, Bush, etc,
We don't need an Old man looking back what we need is an old man and an old woman looking ahead and prepared to change America for the better.
It's time for a Sanders / Warren Ticket for a new social democratic America that will deal with Climate Change and America's racial issues, rein in the plutocracy and end the fossil carbon energy industry and make sure that every person in the country has comprehensive single payer health care for the sake of all of our children.
That is a Time in America we can all look forward (not backward) to!
5
@Richard From Massachusetts How about Warren and Mayor Pete...
I've never been a big fan of Biden; that said, I do think he has the best chance of beating Trump in a general election.
That for me is job #1- so I'm supporting Biden for President...
12
I would like to see Biden displaying the ability to push back during the next debate. A fight against Trump is going to require a fighting spirit that still holds decency.
Biden has so much experience that we will need to reestablish the norms of our Country. We need the Independent's and they will not move far Left.
Don't forget that Putin's Russian trolls have now successfully hacked into our electoral system. We must vote in overwhelming numbers to win. Imagine Trump without the concern of reelection in 2020. Imagine him unbridled. I read people who are already declaring that if their choice of candidate doesn't win the nomination, they won't vote. Please participate in the coming months and vote! For the sake of the Country and the environment, Vote!
8
@Artemis Hudson Vote and vote reasonably and make it count. Don't vote to reelect t by choosing a Dem without a hope of winning or by staying home and wasting a vote. We owe it to our country to do this right.
The black and white photos were a treat. Lovely work. They remind me of tintypes of the civil war, and the black and white photos taken during the Great Depression. In short, they remind me of times past.
But the most important issue of our times is the climate crisis. It's unique in the history of the human race. Nothing in the past prepares us for it. And while Joe calls it an "existential threat", and has a good environmental record, I don't think he truly grasps the immediacy of the challenge. He still sees natural gas as a bridge fuel to a carbon-neutral future. That's not good enough. Among many clues to our future are the recent heatwaves in the Midwest, and the second major heatwave in Europe this year, that brought record-breaking temperatures. This is a current emergency. Nostalgia doesn't cut it.
The idea that we need to focus on the guy in the diner, and that that means taking a conservative path, makes no sense. The guy in the diner wants to know that his family can get the medical care they need and not go bankrupt. The policies of the Green New Deal are precisely what diner guy needs to secure his future and to save his kids and grandkids from environmental catastrophe. Getting that message across is what can win elections for Democrats.
Racism is a strategic asset for Republicans, employed to convince voters that "our" interests are different from the interests of "those people". In fact, they aren't.
3
@writeon1 Biden and Warren for all the issues you mention.
Going back in time is not the answer. Moving forward with a new vision, new energy and new leadership is the answer.
6
@Hope
The answer is voting for the person who can defeat trump . You can forget about climate and the other important issues if trump is reelected. Many people here express the belief that Biden is the one to beat trump and I agree. But why assume that he will only "go back", and not adopt any progressive policies? He and Obama brought forward many issues addressing, for example renewable energy, (and their auto emissions regulations are now on rollback by trump). Certainly Biden would want, at a minimum, to bring those back and then improve upon them. But yes, he does want to go back and restore the presidency to one of dignity and respect, rather than the swampy buffoonery we have now.
2
I consider myself progressive and I support people with progressive intentions. But when I hear/read someone saying that wants to take us "back" to a time that can't be replicated, I get very cautious. Philosophy, data science, facts and experience, tell us that there is now way back. No one can promise a shiny future unless we all have equal conditions of access to quality education, health-care, jobs, and wellness development. Taxes are not giving that to everyone. And, honestly, I don't believe we are going to be relatively fine unless we change the global collective paradigm, which is not capitalism, but the the core of it; the misleading values, the strings that are moving and governing our globalized-networked addicted-oriented society.
We need extremely ethical, compassionate, collaborative, environmentally aware, technologically-savvy, politically progressive, well-educated and intelligent people, not individuals promising an impossible present based on an idealized past.
6
I like Biden on the ticket. I like a Biden/Buttigieg ticket even better. The Times is doing a disservice to Biden by framing the article as "going back"....it should say 'undo' the Trump debacle.
14
Forget Trump.
Biden is focused on winning the election.
Is that what democrats want?
Open question.
Every democrat running should be focused on the common ground with working class whites which in electoral terms means picking up a few more than Obama got. Two or three ticks more.
But expect democrat toddlers to grasp this is how democracy works?
Good luck with that.
6
"Joe Biden Wants to Take America Back to a Time Before Trump
Is that what Democrats want?"
"To put these virtues before the national electorate, however, will require navigating a field of Democratic candidates who all see their path to the nomination as dependent on undermining Biden."
Those Democrats better wake up. Joe Biden is not the issue. Trump and his many documented crimes and the Russian invasion of our election system are the issues.
The Democrats should be discussing their positions on the various problems that need attention, but they can not take their eyes off of who must be defeated next year and that is Trump.
As for " to Take America Back to a Time Before Trump", I would hope so and that includes going back to all of the protections President Obama put in place to protect our financial, trade and bank procedures and the environment.
9
I want the Democrats to understand the big picture here. This gentleman can singlehandedly rebuild our Democracy. He will staff up with people who are here to serve the country, not a bunch of rich miscreants that have done nothing but line their own pockets. I for one want to see Obamacare improved and to keep private insurance for those that want it. I want to see my beautiful country and it’s environment protected. I want to see states like west Va not taken in by a snake oil salesman but invested in with green jobs. Let’s keep our eye on the prize here folks. Go with Joe. Stay the course. There is room for all in the Democratic Party.
33
@Galadriel
"This gentleman can singlehandedly rebuild our Democracy."
No, he can't. We need a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, and leadership in both must be committed to reform our political system on a large scale. There might be some conservatives who would vote for Biden over Trump, but they aren't going to vote D down the ticket. Better to turn out younger voters who will than to chase after Republicans who won't.
8
@Galadriel
Are you forgetting the part about him telling his wealthy donor class nothing would change? Do you think he can and will do anything substantive on climate change? And as one of Obamacare's losers, I could care less about "improving" it for the insurance industry.
1
@Benjamin Hinkley, We already have a Democratic House. We are close to flipping the Senate. What you suggest as necessary for change is within reach.
Biden thinks we can go back to the good old days when Democrats and Republicans could work together. Apparently he has not been paying attention to what has been going on in the GOP since the 1980s. They have been anti-colored people, anti-women (War on Women), anti- anything that doesn't advance the wealth and power of rich white men. They set us up for the election of that thing in the White House.
I suggest Mr. Biden pay attention to the behavior of current Republican politicians. Duh. They want to destroy the Democratic party.
Read at least some of the history of politics in our nation since 1980, Mr. Biden and all who support him
5
The big mistake here is that Biden's campaign is running on the belief that voters don't care about issues, only values. People generally want to move forward, not back; they want someone who can solve their problems. Even Plouffe admits you need both the base and the 'guy in the diner'. To just make this about who is more ethical is not going to tell voters how their problems will be solved. And this will suppress turnout, and Democrats will lose. And the guy in the diner, by the way, has not taken off his MAGA hat.
6
While I like Biden and think he can win, he does use language that is outdated and loaded with -isms.
He attempts to compliment AOC by saying she is “as smart as the devil”.
Gosh, did he really need to associate another powerful woman with evil?
Women have always been perceived to be linked to the devil from Eve onwards.
And anytime they are smart capable and powerful that ubiquitous subconscious link to dark power erupts.
Please Joe think about how powerful language can be and how it is inseparable from sexism and racism as well as other oppressive systemic social structures.
9
Do any of you hard core liberals really believe that any tepid trump supporter would vote for Warren or Harris? I would, but that’s not the question. I’ll never forget Hilary being stalked and man handled on the debate stage. We, America, need a candidate that can stand in front of that treasonous buffoon and call him out in front of the whole world. I would prefer Duane the Rock Johnson , but I don’t think he is on the ticket. Joe is.
5
@Harry B
Do you really believe any Trump supporter of any stripe is going to vote for a Democrat? Particularly an establishment Democrat? And what about down ticket? Shouldn't we be going after voters who will vote Democratic across the ballot?
Gotta move forward. Always forward. No going backward.
7
Let us remember that many...maybe even most...of the so-called "base" voices speaking out against Biden are the same as those that spoke out against Hillary. My question to them is: How's that working out so far?
5
@Madeline Hayes
She lost the election with no help from anyone, despite what you Bernie haters say.
3
@Madeline Hayes
Hillary was nominated despite our warnings, and she lost, as we worried would happen. Maybe you should listen to us this time.
4
@Madeline Hayes
The base voices of'Debbie and Donna' spoke out and connived against Bernie. How did that work out for you?
The optimist's creed: "As you ramble on through life, brother (sister, sibling), whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole."
Yes, many of us want to fix society's problems. We are committed to that. But does that mean that we stick to a rigid notion of all or nothing? Surely, for people who are starving, half the loaf is far better than nothing? What if the one person who can swing enough voters--including the many who don't agree with you-- away from Trump is Joe Biden? Are we so far gone that we see no difference ?
Whatever he lacks, Biden has that optimist quality. Democrats, however much they want to "fix" everybody and everything, tend to succeed only when they harness that optimistic feeling and draw the majority to it.
2
Biden is the best candidate to beat trump and get the country back on track to take care of it’s people rather than drive them down as trump has.
5
I interpret taking us back to a time before trump to mean a restoration of our governmental institutions. Biden has the institutional memory to do that. He was right there during Obama's 8 years and knows just what is being destroyed under trump and how those things should be restored and implemented.
There is NO way we can implement Elizabeth Warren's great ideas without a left leaning majority in both houses of Congress. Can that happen? Will her coattails be long enough? I seriously doubt it. I talk to actual Republicans who can't stand trump and they would possibly vote for Biden, but they would not vote for Warren or Harris or Sanders.
Some of my closest friends are lifelong liberal Democrats like me and we want our government to be restored to its former glory and to see the chaos and destruction of the trump years brought to an end. That should come first. And Biden has the best chance of succeeding. Of course, we aren't members of the Twitterverse.
4
@Katherine
Will he fight to seat a judge or kowtow to McConnell as Obama did?
With changes in climate and technology that will create more migration and income inequality, we don't need civility as much as clear policies to address what will become overwhelming problems. And if not addressed radical, unjust, and brutal solutions will emerge out of fear and dislocation. The election is about a future that can be catastrophic if real leadership and vision is absent. Nationalism is opposite of what the planet needs to solve its problems.
So, is Joe Biden that person, who will be 97 in 20 years, or is the generation "on the business end" of this future as Pete Buttigieg (who will be 57) suggests, the ones to lead?
4
If the Dems don’t nominate Biden or Bernie or Buttigieg they will lose against Trump. None of the other candidates have a chance.
3
Fitting that the pictures of this article are in black and white...a symbol of everything Joe Biden stands for. Old politics and old policies that simply do not work.
Though I will be voting for someone else in the primary and if he does become the democratic candidate I will vote for him. However, I am saddened that democrats always fall back on the "same ole same ole."
5
@BJ
Barack Obama was not "same ole same ole". Bill Clinton was not either. And neither was Jimmy Carter or Kennedy. The Democrats will be fine if they stick together to destroy Trump in the election.
I am for Biden because the numbers say he can beat trump. Whatever issues people have with Biden, I suggest you ask yourself, "Is this worth having a second trump term?"
9
What Mr Biden, and Mr Trump, don't seem to understand is that you can never go back to a previous era. "Progress", for better or worse, is inevitable and the best we can do is learn how to mitigate the effects of "progress" when the effects are harmful. To try to go back to the past is foolish and will be harmful, as Donald Trump's tenure in the White House has already shown us.
3
I am a liberal, I am progressive, I am interested in a number of candidates currently running. But I am also a pragmatist and I know that Biden's the one who'll win Ohio and surrounding states. Biden will do a solid job and the necessary course correction. A Biden presidency after this Trump nightmare will just be the beginning, not the end that so many progressives seem to fear if he's elected. The real fear is the lasting damage of a Trump reelection and continued reign of his GOP sycophants. Progressive or moderate, we can't do much until Trump and his cronies are OUT (and hopefully IN jail soon after).
9
The same wealthy individuals who are doing so well under Trump wouldn't miss a beat under Biden. Unless the democrats can make it clear that it's these pampered tax dodgers who are holding us back from addressing climate change and affordable healthcare and education, things won't change for the better.
12
Democrats need to go after Trump and not each other. Candidates tell us what you are for and why you would be the best candidate to beat Trump. Biden would make a fine president. His VP pick would be thoughtfully chosen. People forget that it was Biden that jumped out ahead of Obama in supporting Gay Marriage. That is progressive. One more thing, with the bipartisan Senate intelligence committee's recent statement that Russia interfered with our 2016 elections in ALL states, how do we know that Hillary did not win?
3
In some ways I do believe there is validity in the thought wave that Biden could win back white working middle class voters. He has a gazillion years in politics, joined at the hip to Obama, and despite all his bad “touching” and “sniffing” (lol) press he comes off as a nice jovial guy with an easy touch personality on the senses. And let’s face it, the country needs a stable personality from their President.
6
Joe Biden can stand on his record!
1991 As Chairman, allowed fellow members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to attacked Anita Hill. (So we got Clarence Thomas.)
1994 Wrote the disastrous Crime Bill. (Hello prison industrial complex.)
1995 Wrote the Omnibus Counter-terrorism Act (became Patriot Act).
1996 Voted Against Gay Marriage. (Real leadership there.)
1999 Repealed Glass Steagall. (World financial crisis.)
2001 Voted for the Patriot Act. (Big Brother is watching you.)
2002 Voted for Iraq War. (Yeah but it's ok, cuz his son served.)
2005 Voted to end bankruptcy protection for students. (Endless debt builds character.)
2018 Presents G.W. Bush with Liberty Medal. (Finally gets the big stuff right.)
Joe Biden is a neoliberal corporate donor moderate Republican with a blue suit & tie.
16
Women don't vote for women in this country.
1
Can we please stop electing candidates that want to take us backward?
We are where we are. Start there. Move forward. Improve.
THAT is being progressive.
8
“I thought Hillary would have made a good president.”
Obama, Biden and HRC all played their part in fueling Trump”s success. All three placed corporate interests above the public will, and the working class paid the price.
Obama’s ACA only curbed SOME of the private insurance industry’s atrocities. We’re still faced with large deductibles and copays - and a cancer diagnosis is still forcing many into bankruptcy.
Speaking of bankruptcy, Biden protected his banker friends with his bankruptcy bill which made it harder for working people to take advantage of what corporate America takes for granted.
Hillary declaring that “we’re all in this together” during an era of off-the-charts inequality was just one of her many campaign blunders.
Trump ran an anti-establishment campaign while the Dems embraced the establishment - the Dems are already repeating that mistake for 2020.
10
Joe will undoubtedly have to undo a tremendous amount of damage caused by the Trump Administration, if any candidate tells you otherwise, they are lying to you. While all of the other candidates appear to be offering different agendas, most are either pie in the sky (Medicare for All which would bankrupt the country; Sanders and Harris or example ) or they simply want to buy your vote ( Eliminating all student loan debt proposals: Sanders and Warren..) In other words, the extreme 'progressives' are not living in the real world. Joe is.
Smear him all you want, say all the bad things you will, but he is the ONLY ONE who the Democrats and all the progressives can rally around in November 2020 to defeat Donald John Trump. Democrats can either scatter or they can pull together to defeat a national enemy in the White House. We shall see...
7
IF Biden could take us back to 1960 before Vietnam I'd be all for it. But we have gone to far down the road to ever go back to a government that was not sold on militarism and a pentagon budget that is breaking the bank.
5
@USMC1954 Before Vietnam was Korea. Before and after Korea was intervening in Central America. Before that was invading México. Before that was wiping out the indigenous population and importing Africans as slaves. The US has made some progress on these fronts conceptually as indicated by your name - a USMC alum who sees the problem. We need people like you to speak out about the unspeakable evils of using a country´s very lifeblood and resources to enrich a nasty few while destroying their nation.
I'll be standing in the Biden corner of my local school's gymnasium during the Iowa caucus. My dream ticket is Biden-Harris but will wholeheartedly support any Democrat against trump.
6
Biden: To "Take America Back to a Time Before Trump..".. - this might be one of the worst slogans possible...
There still seem to be long-term politicians who are not really capable of learning.
6
He has my vote! Though I prefer Bernie , I think he is the most electable
1
@Jose A.
Bernie is the most electable, you mean.
3
My vote will go to the Democrat candidate with the most foreign policy experience, period. And that’s Biden. The Dems have to hang onto the House but I fear they’ll miss taking the Senate and that means McConnell won’t lift a finger to consider passing any legislation. Four years of gridlock guaranteed. So that leaves Biden to reset our country’s position on the world stage and reengage with our allies, no small task. Putin has kept the lid on trouble spots on behalf of his toady puppet tRump but if his puppet loses, we can expect Putin to start agitating: he could invade the Balkans, encourage Kim to ramp up his missile tests and push China to add extreme tariffs on US goods as well as build up more fortifications in the South China Sea. Biden needs no introduction to the world, he is known and admired. There is no learning curve for him. His VP and Secretary of State picks will be critical but at least he knows what is needed in those positions. He will get my vote and I’ll sleep better knowing the world won’t face the existential threat we do with tRump.
3
Yes, indeed, please, Joe Biden, take us back to a time before Trump, when sanity and decency reigned and a grownup was in the White House. Unlike the mouthy young upstarts drawing attention to themselves, you have the wisdom of maturity and political experience. Oh, and emphasize affordable Health Care as Americans' primary need. Thank you.
3
I thunk it is a lofty ideal, but the the divide that’s present in this country is not new: it has been there since the beginning of its creation. Class warfare and racial disparity sits at the core of America. Trump knows and uses its engine to make him Prime Time ratings king. The time before Trump that Joe Biden talks about never really existed. It’s just an ideal put forth in books, movies, newspapers, and television.
3
It’s interesting that the photos accompanying this piece black and white, suggesting a former era. Color photography didn’t gain traction until after WWII. Is that what Biden is going for? A more decent time when people were polite and considerate and their pictures were simply framed in black and white?
But the black and white pictures of Biden here might also suggest a limited vision – just black or white – no nuance, no broader scope, and certainly no boldness. Black and white is safe.
The time before Trump doesn’t seem so idyllic to me. It was a time before we became woke to so many issues and began to see in color. It was a time when the Republicans were executing their decades-long neo-liberal campaign against the middle class, and many Democrats joined them – a time when the oligarchs emerged and took control. It was a time when Democrats wasted a lot of opportunities and let the Republicans walks all over them. Biden was part of that time.
We don’t need someone who wants to look (and live) in the rear-view mirror. We need someone bold enough to look to the future because – guess what? – that’s where we’re headed. We need someone who can see all of the colors, not just black and white.
3
At this still-early stage, we must remember that Trump is a symptom and throw our support at candidates who are capable of leading the nation through the profound changes necessary to address the cancer that is wasting away the vast majority of our people. We must get corporate money out of politics, reform our health care system, educate everyone who wants a better life, create jobs through addressing the climate change disaster. Biden will do none of this; he doesn't even perceive that it's necessary. He is just a band-aid, and if he manages to get himself elected, we'll be dealing with another Trump four years later.
4
@N Gilkyson Exactly. As an expat of 15 years I and many fellow Americans abroad cannot believe that citizens do not see their nation in a clearer light. It has never been great for all. Progress has been made but why oh why is higher education so overpriced - it is not in other countries so they surge ahead. Health care is a right in most places and people suffer and go through craziness to get treatment and it costs a fortune in the US. On and on, it is crazy, negligent and the product of a deluded nation. One of the worst ideas was "American exceptionalism" and the slogan "best country ever" - seems to have been bought 110% by those who are easy to manipulate, are not educated and never travel. I mean really, when you know nothing else how on earth can you comment on how good a place/thing/person is... Irrational belief is the order of the day and the nation is failing.
1
@P Wilkinson
I agree and I will add that it is largely because we have NEVER challenged what the republicans say about Democrats when they call us Socialists and unpatriotic! There is one who is running who can do this. Here is a great example
" If we adopt a platform that's way out to the left they're going to say we're socialists. If we adopt a more moderate or conservative platform they're going to say we're socialists. So we might as well do what we think is right, make a case for it and let them do what they want"
Pete Buttigieg
The United States, like many of our global democratic allies, is in great danger of losing our constitutionally based republic. For us, the existential threat is president Trump. In my opinion, no noble goal like Medicare for all is achievable unless we continue to live in the sort of democracy that Biden wants to take us back to. We strive to make this country a better place for everyone. That goal is truly sought after by Biden and others but not Trump. Trump has effectively deceived millions of Americans into believing otherwise.
Historians, academics, the scientific community and many politicians are shouting as loudly as they can at the rest of us to wake up. Centrism is the best bet to avoid becoming another Putin's Russia.
4
Biden is a good solid mainstream runner. And despite his age, should do well against his opponent(s), the GOP... and the far left.
1
Yeah the scary “far left “. Americans can never—ever—have what citizens of every other first world nation have had for decades. And we know why.
Biden mentions his advocacy on behalf of the middle class. Is he referring here to his support for Wall Street deregulation, the bankruptcy bill, NAFTA and TPP, and profit-driven healthcare? Or perhaps his calls for Social Security cuts and means-testing? Very few middle- and working-class people flourish under such policies.
Is this the best the Democratic party, the so-called party of the people, can do?
225
@Ann NAFTA has been great for many, many Americans companies and their employees. That’s from 18 years working in the trucking industry. TPP, while certainly not perfect, would have effectively put the brakes on China in a far more comprehensive way than the mish-mash we see today.
30
@Ann
Sadly it looks like it.
13
@Dudesworth
NAFTA has done well for corporations and upper-class people almost exclusively, while Mexican wages were slashed and Americans with union jobs forced into low-paying service industry position or left unemployed. Read Noam Chomsky. If Biden portrays NAFTA and TPP as positive then Trump will light him up like a dusty scarecrow in the middle of the country.
12
I'd prefer someone other than Biden for several reasons but if he's the candidate I'll certainly vote for him. However, I want him or any other person running to take American forward to a time 'after' Trump, not before him.
323
@RKD Exactly. The exacerbation of wealth inequality, the destruction of the environment, the corrosion of our infrastructure, the militarization of the US, suppression of women, addressing immigration reform in a pragmatic and compassionate way, reversing the corruptive effects of "Citizens United"...etc., etc., etc. All need to be addressed in ways that were not even considered by Republican-lite Democrats.
Whoever is the Democratic nominee, including Biden, I will vote for them, because to do anything positive about these issues, we must get Trump out of the White House. More importantly, we also need to get a majority in the senate to oust the odious obstructor, McConnell.
58
The Dems are trending left and that will leave Biden behind. The millennials want free stuff, and Joe does not believe that is the was to go. The impression he leaves is that he had nothing better to do, so he might as well run. No real fire in the belly, IMHO. And he looks like he need a nap all the time. What does it say when Obama won't endorse his own VP? Plus, he would lose to Trump very easily. I think it will be Liz v Trump. She has the wealth tax proposal, and that is the only source of money that is politically viable, if you don't want to federally tax the lower 50% of workers.
1
Millennials think OUR taxes should be invested in OUR health care and in OUR education. Instead of trillions for our bloated military industrial complex and more tax breaks for the rich. Millennials want action on climate change—now. It’s our future.
15
Hey Joe, in case you forgot, the time before Trump is what brought us Trump. I'd rather not go back there, frankly. It's time to move forward. Medicare for all. A strong social safety net. A federal job guarantee. A progressive tax code. Robust infrastructure investment. Reduced military presence abroad and reduced spending. Free state college. You know, all those things we didn't have in the pre-Trump era, which contributed to and exacerbated wealth inequality in the US, and led to people wanting a change so much they elected the least qualified person to ever win a major party nomination.
429
@B. L.
Oh my, it's like you forgot there is this thing called "the Republican party". How is that possible?
Now that you're reminded, make a note to yourself that the majority of states are controlled by Republicans. That the senate is controlled by Republicans. And that Republicans are not going to magically disappear from the calculus of what can be done politically.
64
@Matthew
But yet we've learned that the Republican control is fraudulent, gerrymandered, the result of voter-suppression.
So, yes, if we straighten out our voting system and get money out of politics, the Republicans will "magically" go away just as they did in CA. It's why the Republicans need their diapers changed so frequently.
34
@Benjy Chord Straightening out our voting system requires that Democrats first win back control of both houses of Congress, the White House, and the state legislatures and Governorships, and the courts. First the Dems have to win the swing states in the 2020 general election; Biden has the best chance of doing that.
25
All my Conservative/Republican colleagues and relatives tell me that the best choice is Biden, he is sure to keep the status quo and money flow, to us,the Conservative/Republican.
Biden is too close too the center edge and we are already hanging by our fingertips. Going back will take us to the times when the rules to pick the SCOTUS can be changed as we go along, going high, (with the Republicans) .
No thanks.
3
Overseas voter here. Biden is not a viable option for the 21st Century. We cannot except this fear-based idea that Biden is the 'one' to beat Trump. I think we need someone who isn't beholden to corporate America. I also don't think Sanders, equally but for other reasons, is a viable option. One is too corporate, the other is too grouchy, too ideological. We need a pragmatist of the left. I'm with Warren.
2
@Tony Robert Cochran I´m with Warren also, she spells out policy and works well with change, a team.
1
I wish Sherrod Brown would run and if he wins the nomination, pick one of the others running as a VP.Then if he wins in 2020 appoint the rest to his cabinet.
I'm a Bernie supporter, but seeing the same thing I did in 2016.Media is ignoring him, and when he is mentioned,it usually is a hit piece.I'll vote for who the nominee is,even if it is Biden,but I think Brown would help carry the midwest,and independent voters.
3
Joe Biden is a zero pretty much all around. He embodies the worst parts of the Obama administration and he has no vision for the future. I guess he's a nice guy - as long as you are not a woman.
9
YES! The sooner we can forget that Trump happened the better. His administration has become an ugly stain on America that will take decades to wash out. Very unfortunate. I'm a Republican and would vote for Biden without hesitation.
Trump used to wail "if we don't have borders we don't have a country!!!" all the time. A false claim used to justify his inhumanity because we do have borders. I say if we don't have ethics in government and rule of law we don't have a country. Trump is a criminal and a colluder - conclusive evidence presented in the Mueller Report. Read it!
3
Excellent summary of Biden. I would have used a different word when describing the Harris busing attack. Yes, she “chided” him, but she was really trying to eviscerate his candidacy. I hope she thinks it was worth it. I decided at that moment I could not vote for Harris. She is way too self-serving, short sighted and seems unconcerned that her attack may have provided more ammunition to Trump in 2020. Yes, Biden needs to show much more in the next debates, since he cannot assume it is in the bag. His prep team better prep him like he is in the political fight of his life. They need to hit him with the tough questions that will inevitably come from the other Dems on stage. He needs to do more homework, show more confidence and get the energy level up. But I still feel he is the one who can beat Trump. He is the one, who if cruelly attacked by Trump, as he will be, might actually gain votes. It could help the lost Obama voters get out and vote. It could help move an uncomfortable Trump voter to change their vote. This is a rare advantage and something we all should think hard about come 2020.
6
Agree. Harris also lost my vote in that phony moment. She wanted him OUT of there. Biden gained my sympathy.
I have a lot of admiration for Joe Biden. Despite various ups and downs, after 40 years of public service and public office, he still appears to actually like people, want the best for them, and not be a cynic. That's huge. But - But I am still looking for another candidate.
7
@David: Looking to lose but be right.
OK, so how many of you would decline to support Joe Biden if some definitive evidence were established that only he could defeat Donald Trump? Considering how well known the two of them are at this point, the polls (especially the state polls) are worth paying attention to.
9
@stu freeman A lot can change in 12 months.
1
@RLW: Donald Trump becoming a decent human being (let alone a decent president) isn't among them.
2
Even recognizing that a lot of people have an affection for the Vice President, the country cannot really afford a nostalgic Presidency. It needs a forceful, energetic personality who can rope Congress together, and drag it, along with the federal bureaucracy, down the road to confronting the challenges of the modern world in the 21st century. Maybe such a candidate isn't yet present in the race, but it's pretty easy to determine who does not fit that bill, and one of those, regretfully, is Vice President Biden.
12
@David Godinez There is much to what you write. However as long as McConnell maintains control of the Senate (even if the Dems were able to flip the Senate -- which is a big IF), no amount of energy or forcefulness will mediate him. He has repeatedly shown the country who he is and how far he will go to thwart anything remotely tied to the Democratic party or its agenda. One thing is clear however, 4 more years of this administration is lethal to all of us. If we keep the house and grab the Oval Office there is some bit of hope. I am behind whomever and whatever can achieve that.
13
@David Godinez Joe Biden is not the man he was 50 years ago. And he is too old to carry all that baggage he acquired in the 20 th Century. Time for a fresh face to combat the old man of the Republican throwback party, Donald J. Trump. Even Elizabeth Warren, the oldest of the young whippersnappers of the Dems, has much more to offer than Biden.
2
Oprah Winfrey is the ONLY person who can beat Trump! She is smart, wealthy, popular with almost everyone, and she must be enlisted to defeat Trump. It would be a great sacrifice for her,no doubt. She seems to have a wonderful life. But if she puts country first, maybe there’s a chance Democracy could be saved.
Sorry, but Biden and Sanders need to pull out. We need their voices, but not as candidates.
They are in their seventies, they have seen and know a lot. They are old and they starting to look and sound frail. The election is more than a year away.
I think these guys could have made excellent presidents, but their time has passed. They need to be mentoring, serving as advisors, and they need to be looking after the grandkids. They need to be doing what Al Gore is doing, working outside of government for positive change.
18
@Carl Lee
Ageism is never an appealing argument.
6
@SchnauzerMom I believe in this case it is simply realistic.
Well then, be prepared for another four years of Trump and the degradation of America
If Biden is the nominee I will vote for him in the general no question. However, I do not think I will be voting for him in the primary. I was leaning against doing so before the debates and the inept way he dealt with Harris’ attacks makes me doubt his ability to actually beat Trump. I want my vote to go to someone I believe will actually be able to win. Unfortunately, I still have serious concerns about all the front runners. I’m hoping those concerns are addressed as the field narrows.
8
I will vote blue no matter who gets the nomination this time, but I remember what the stress of the presidential years did to Clinton, Bush, and Obama. They looked like vibrant men in their primes when they started. When they all were visibly aged. Biden will be nearly 80 by the time of the election. Do we honestly believe that he is going to be able to handle arguably the most stressful job in the country? As a moderate, I like Joe’s stances on a lot of issues, not all, but many. I hope Klobuchar starts getting some momentum. She’s aligned with Biden on a lot of issues, and she’s scrappy. I think out of all the candidates she’d give Trump the most trouble in the battleground states.
8
In some ways, the American electorate divides into three groups: those attracted to Trump, those attracted to AOC, and those attracted to Biden.
Trumpers dislike the Clinton/Bush/Obama-era status quo and want radical change—but their change is backward looking.
AOCers dislike the Clinton/Bush/Obama-era status quo and want radical change—but their change is forward looking.
Bideners want to preserve the Clinton/Bush/Obama-era status quo and are therefore mostly change resistant (against both the Trump and the AOC style of change).
I fear we are headed for an election in which the Republicans continue to offer change while the Democrats—as they have for decades—offer mostly more of the pre-Trump same. While a certain segment of the population likes the idea of returning to the Clinton/Bush/Obama era, I'm not sure that's a position that will compel many Trump voters to abandon Trump or stimulate those who like AOC to go to the polls and vote Democrat. I think the results of a Biden candidacy have a strong probably of being similar to the results of a Clinton candidacy. Remember Clinton was ahead in the polls and supposed to beat Trump too.
22
@617to416
Guess I’m out then. I like Harris, Klobuchar and Warren.
1
@617to416 Wrong, AOC only looks in the mirror as do her supporters. Not forward-looking, rather narrow-visioned. Too caught up in her own efficacy.
2
Pro Trump, Pro AOC, and Pro Biden... I think the electorate is both smarter and dumber than that. Mainstream Media is pushing certain candidates with pure bias! Why did Andrew Yang get 2 minutes of talk time (last of 20 candidates) at debates despite polling in top 6. Glam articles and electability arguments for Biden continue to feed this narrative. Sadly brainwashing electorate is working. I am excited about zero of his ideas. Who is???Other than being a democratic, he has very little distinction from Trump. Another creepy old man who makes women uncomfortable... Without passionate followers, it will be hard to get the "get out to vote" campaign for the status quo hes peddling. Voting will be a chore instead of a thrill if hes nominee. Don't see that as a win. Sanders, Warren, Yang... their supporters bring the passion that warrants more press.
The election will be won with independents and moderates in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, who voted for Trump because they couldn't stand Hillary and are now disenchanted. We need these states, and Trump is losing support from independents. These states are not keen on the progressive agenda. None of the other top tier candidates can win these states because they are too far to the left, perceived to be favoring illegal immigrants more than Americans, and obsessed with racial grievances.
I'm skeptical of polls but it seems that Biden appeals to these moderates and independents, especially in those states that we need to win the electoral college. Whatever his flaws, Biden is genuine, warm and well liked. Unfortunately, substance is not as important as connecting emotionally with the candidate. So, I don't even think the debates with Trump will be important. Gore, Kerry and Clinton were better in substance than their opponents, but didn't win because voters didn't connect with them. As for those who claim that Kamala Harris will eviscerate Trump in a debate, that may be so. But her race card attack on Biden will not wear well in those states.
I am liberal but I don't care about Biden's past record. I don't need a woman or person of color on the ticket. I want a ticket that can win. And, enough with the impeachment obsessions Focus on those states and the issues that will win the election. Show how Trump's policies are hurting ALL ordinary Americans.
83
@dba
You completely misread the midwest. The midwest didn't vote for Trump because he's more moderate than Clinton. The midwest voted for Trump because he was outside the establishment - an establishment that had stood idly by while jobs went away and small towns died.
Now, it's obvious that Trump is far worse, far more of a crony capitalist than perhaps the electorate expected. Those who voted for him and are disappointed (of whom there aren't very many) aren't going to be thrilled to vote for an establishment Democrat.
We need someone who represents a NEW approach, not the approach that got us into this mess in the first place. Biden simply is not the person to do that.
5
@dba
Based upon the last election, the people desire change. Not the Status Quo. Candidate Sanders won the Midwest Battle Ground states last primary.
In Wisc. alone, Sanders took every single county except one. Self described Moderate HRC lost the Midwest primary, and lost the elec. there again.
No, more buisness as usual isn't what those independants want. That has been proven.
Who is polling well there again, and in head to head against Trump, is....Bernie Sanders.
Again.
https://tulchinresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Tulchin-Research-Memo-Sanders-Defeating-Trump-in-Industrial-Battleground-States-4-19-final.pdf
"Notably, Sanders runs well with key subgroups of voters whom Trump won in '16 and with whom Democrats must improve their performance with in order to win these crucial states. Specifically, Sanders leads Trump by wide margins among independent voters (MI: Sanders 55% to Trump 33%; WI: Sanders 54% to Trump 36%; PA: Sanders 48% to Trump 37%) and proves competitive with white voters without a four year college degree in both WI (Sanders 50% to Trump 45%) and MI (Sanders 47% to Trump 47%) and does better with this cohort in PA than Democrats did in '16.
He is a decent man and his honesty stands in stark contrast to the self serving mendacious behavior of Trump. The contrived nature of Harris’ attack undermines her integrity.
60
Trump is the existential threat. I'm willing to put aside any ideological misgivings to avoid four more years of McConnell packing the judiciary with right wing activist, children separated from their mothers, widening income inequality, and a bombastic foreign policy. Democrats can nitpick on marginal issues but if we insist on ideological purity, the perfect candidate that aligns with our view on the role of government on every issue, we get what we deserve. Setting the agenda is the most important goal. Just win baby!!!
31
Why does articles like this talk as if Democrats and Republicans are all cookie cutter with the same needs and wants . There are all shades of political beliefs in both party's . The question is , does a majority of the Democrats want this and can they pull in enough of the independent vote to win an election?
4
Biden will be almost 80 years old if he's elected. America deserves better. Warren has ideas to move America forward. Biden will be old and feeble.
35
@Julia I'm 81 and not old and feeble. How old are you? Warren would be a good running mate who could share her ideas with Biden.
7
Julia -- Please don't generalize. Yes, Biden will be nearly 80, but that doesn't ipso facto make him old and feeble. I'm older than Biden and I am not old and feeble. And he's way too vigorous to have earned that moniker.
If you prefer a different candidate, that's your perfect right, but don't stigmatize someone with gross generalizations. That sounds Trumpian.
5
You may be healthy and vibrant, and we are happy for you, Bernie certainly is, I’ve met him many times, but sadly for him, Biden isn’t.
4
I have zero interest in going back to the days of Anita Hill. And I have no interest in a candidate who panders to insecure white blue collar men. If Democrats are not ready to elect a thoughtful modern leader, then I will go to the polls and write in someone else. Never Biden.
14
@Bonnie
Too bad we didn't proclaim Bernie as the one we choose and had a "write in'', we would have one. Thanks for reminding people it is their right, their vote that belongs to the individual. Writing in can be powerful.
1
@Bonnie
So, you're voting for trump then?
3
@Bonnie Writing in someone else means re-electing Trump.
3
The Times claims to support diversity but essentially every "regular contributor to the magazine" , including Sternberger, is a committed progressive Democrat.
Why is that?
Historically, one of the hallmarks of liberalism has been to encourage the thought provoking exchange of differing views.
Now, many liberals fear and suppress those differing views.
5
@jck
It definitely is not fear, or suppression, as if one could tone down the right-wing loudmouths who never stop lying.
No, I would say it is mainly because so-called conservatives have nothing to say. Nothing new, or forward looking at all in what they repeat endlessly. Repeat endlessly.
Why give any of them another platform to spew?
Biden is the reason why your credit card companies are based in Delaware. Biden is also heavily in favor of continuing our previously unadvantageous trade with China so that his backers can continue to profit while our industrial capabilities waste away. He is the corporate candidate much like Jeb Bush.
20
And, like Jeb Bush, how much money Biden has is irrelevant. He will lose.
2
Getting rid of Trump is the most important thing the country needs! I will gladly have him take us back to the Obama-Biden era. Democrats need to be disciplined in their efforts to win control of our government and step one is the presidency. There is no hope of implementing any policy change with Republicans controlling the Senate. If anyone had doubts that the republicans have become the party of Trump, watch highlights of their shameful defense of a criminal and traitor during the Mueller testimony. The republicans have no loyalty to country and we need to wrestle control of our government from these traitors--willing to allow Russia and Putin to determine our future president.
29
Bernie Sanders was not only content to lose the last election for Hillary (same as Ralph Nader with Al Gore) --
Bernie Sanders wants to LOSE the election for the Democrats … yet another round after Hillary!!!
I am a liberal, but I recognize the reality that liberals only make up 25% of the electorate, and Republicans have already successfully demonized socialism.
Hello, there are more conservatives and moderates out there, than… liberals. Get OUT of that bubble!
32
@Pat
I didn't know that Sanders not only refused to endorse Hillary but also ran against her in the general election on a third party ticket.
The things you learn from these comments.
3
Any blue will do. They can’t be worse
I’ll take whoever.
12
The Democrats should nominate and elect someone who can take us forward, not back, leaving Trump in the dustbin of history.
5
People below are saying they will stay home in 2020 if Joe Biden is the nominee.
Anybody who stays home, whomever our nominee might be, is voting for Trump, kids in cages, white supremacy and an oligarchical economic system.
Honestly, people who decide to stay home are worse than Trump voters.
226
@Lefthalfbach
Maybe it behooves the centrists in the Democratic party to stop criticizing the left and do more to get them on board. Moderate Democrats who attack the left will be just as guilty if Trump wins. Votes aren't given, they must be earned.
19
@Lefthalfbach
If we don't want people to stay home, maybe we should nominate someone who makes them want to vote.
25
@Benjamin Hinkley So it is more important to salve their hurt ideological feelings than to save our republic from the disaster of this Trump presidency? Can't they see we may only have one chance to take the country back from the oligarchy? If you aren't crazy about the Democratic candidate, fine - vote for him/her anyway to defeat the greatest evil ever known in the presidency.
12
Taking us back to pre-Trump. Wouldn’t that be lovely?
9
I support Biden and will happily vote for him if he is the nominee. The other Democratic front runners are bit too left for my taste, but if any of them are the nominee I will vote for them over trump without hesitation.
If you are a Democrat and you don’t vote against trump then you lose your rights to complain for the next 4 years. When clinton was the nominee so many people said that they were just going to stay home and not vote because they couldn’t bare to vote for Clinton. Well we got trump out of the deal.
Understand that the Democratic Party is a mix of liberal, moderate and conservative voices across the country. I understand when your favored nominee isn’t chosen it can be upsetting, but we live in the real world where our actions have consequences.
A Democrat who decides not to vote because they are unhappy with the winner of the Democratic primary is worst then a trump voter in my book.
70
@Stephen
Thank you for saying this! It's disheartening to read commenters who miss the big picture and say they won't vote if their candidate is not nominated.
Even if the "other guy" is too center or too left, realistically, they aren't going to pass everything they promise, even with a friendly Congress. Progress and change are slow, and if anything, those promises are ideals. Our goal should be to judge who will be able to lead the country in that direction to the best of their ability.
We must comprise to overcome Trump, and that means not always getting exactly what you want but, you still get some of what you want.
"No one is very happy, which means it's a good compromise." - Game of Thrones
2
@Amanda
Maybe it shouldn't always be one side of the Big Tent who is always having to compromise.?~!
Asking people to vote for more of the same, that hasn't worked in 40yrs for them, because *Less evil* is better, isn't really a rallying cry.
If the promose is *nothing will change*, for those who are desperate, destitute and hopeless, then why bother?~!
You want and expect those votes, then win them. Maybe it's time for the other side of the tent to compromise. Yes?!
“Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
2
Sorry, but Joe Biden had his shot in 2016. As the sitting vice president, he was in the best position to offer himself as a continuation of the Obama administration. However, Joe decided to sit that primary season out (he claims for personal reasons but I'm pretty sure he knew the DNC had the fix in). As a result, Democrats got Hillary Clinton as their flawed standard bearer and we saw how well that worked out in the general election. It's way past time for aging baby boomers to retire gracefully and make room for younger ideas and candidates.
12
Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee. He is too old and too old school. I have nothing against older people but Joe simply no longer has the energy. I predict Senator Warren will be the nominee, and she will lose in a landslide to Dangerous Donald. Get ready!
10
@Mark
He has plenty of the real energy that one needs and he understands the Presidency, but your analysis about Warren getting the nomination and loosing to Trump is probably accurate. The Dems can't win with record numbers in CA, NY, MA, ME, and university towns.
@Mark I predict Warren will win in a landslide and she WILL be our next POTUS. Warren has wisdom, temperament, experience, devotion to defending our democracy, rule of law & uphold role of 3 branches of gov. She fights corruption, stands w our allies. Seeks peace/prosperity for US. Not for sale--doesn't take corporate/lobbyists. small donations.
1
I cringe at the notion of going back to anything. The message
should be going forward leaving the trump travesty behind languishing in the dust bin of history. And fast.
11
Make America Great Again 2.0 isn’t a winning strategy for the Democratic nomination.
6
As a 43-year-old from Racine, Wisconsin, I disagree with Plouffe. Democrats don’t need to flip the welders back to blue; they just need the red welders to stay home on Election Day. Southeast Wisconsin is no longer a safe bet for Trump after the Foxconn con. Even my father, who always votes and always votes red, has openly admitted that he won’t vote against Biden if he gets the nomination.
28
Full disclosure, I like Joe Biden. I think he is the best choice to beat Trump, and he has my vote.
This piece, while not as outrightly negative as some previously run in the Times, projects veiled ageism. The vintage photos. Describing Biden’s complexion as gray. Really? Because he likely wasn’t wearing makeup? His face wasn’t orange?
News outlets appear desperately afraid Biden will win, and their ratings, and subscriptions will crash. Hence, the pieces by Dowd, Krugman, and the rest.
Please, we need a sane person in the White House to fix the mess inflicted by the current administration. Not to take us back to a time before Trump, but to get us past it.
Oh, and as a suggestion for a running mate? Senator Jon Tester, D-Montana.
6
Biden’s time has come and gone. He’s no longer relevant.
9
@George Warren will be our nominee and win by landslide. She has wisdom, temperament, experience, devotion to defending our democracy, rule of law & uphold role of 3 branches of gov. She fights corruption, stands w our allies. Seeks peace/prosperity for US. Not for sale--doesn't take corporate/lobbyists. small donations. #Warren2020
The Democrats need to be realistic and not so idealistic! They must accept that the road to the presidency goes through Wisconsin,Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.They must have a candidate who can win in these states no matter whether that person is ideologically pure and exciting to an increasing liberal base.People do not trust government and now, more than ever, they may need a well known candidate so that they do not find themselves with someone at the top of the ticket who will not overwhelmTrump.
8
“A lot of people were left behind,” Biden said. “In areas where people were hard hit, I don’t think we paid enough attention to their plight.”
How is paying attention to people still being left behind moving backwards? Are they just supposed to accept their degradation for the sake of 'progress'?
4
If it comes down to Biden and Trump, I will vote for Biden. If it is Warren, Harris or Bernie I will vote for Trump. I believe there are many people like me in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
10
I’m the complete opposite, I guess we just cancelled each other out.
5
Cleveland might go for Trump but Wisconsin has had enough of his lies. They got suckered into the Foxcon deal and they got suckered into thinking he would help farmers. So...if my fellow Wisconsinites want to be suckered some more they can vote for Trump again. If they want some fresh air and ideas for making capitalism work for them, listen to Warren.
2
@Jluv Except you're in California, so it doesn't matter how you vote. It matters how Ohio votes.
3
A transparent attempt to impart a sense of deep desire for days gone by, seeking to awake nostalgic memories of the good times, before it all went bad.
The sepia like black and white photographs; the sitting at a picnic style table eating ice cream cones with his granddaughter, all efforts to stir Norman Rockwell-like longings for Americana; brilliant, but the electorate no longer believes, so brutalized, so abused and beaten down, after decades of betrayal flowing from our corporate owned government, regardless the party in power.
Today, the soul of America is hurting, twisting in a hot wind created by those bereft of decency and empathy, those rulers who see that soul as something they own, a capital resource to be exploited; both Republicans and Democrats are engaged in a war to continue the exploitation, so next go-round it must be anyone but Trump and Biden.
Remember these words from Thomas Wolfe's, "You can't go home again"
"But it is not only at these outward forms that we must look to find the evidence of a nation's hurt. We must look as well at the heart of guilt that beats in each of us, for there the cause lies. We must look, and with our own eyes see, the central core of defeat and shame and failure which we have wrought in the lives of even the least of these, our brothers. And why must we look? Because we must probe to the bottom of our collective wound. As men, as Americans, we can no longer cringe away and lie. Are we not all warmed by the same sun ..."
4
What I want is no more Trump. I think Biden is the best way to do that, because he seems to have the widest appeal. Sanders and the other spiritual successors to Ralph Nader (who couldn't tell the difference between Bush and Gore) will do more to re-elect Trump than all the Russians in the world. At some level, I think they know this. They don't care.
All the Democrats needed to win in 2016 was a relatable, likable candidate. For all her wonderful qualifications, Hillary was not that. Biden is. Nor only that, he is not the lightning rod for right wing hate that somebody like Warren is. He's a good old boy. And that is what we need now.
The Democrats' biggest challenge is the prevent Trump from making the "Squad" the face of the Democratic party. Unfortunately, those women and Trump couldn't agree more on that one issue. I, too, wish they would go back where they came from (or anywhere else but here), but not for the same reasons as Trump.
8
Wayne Gretzky said it best. The secret to his success, he said was "skating to where the puck is going to be."
Joe Biden, for all of his virtues, experience, knowledge, kindness and empathy, appears to be attempting to get the nation to skate to where the puck already was.
The Trump presidency would also turn America backwards, but many millions of Americans, not in good ways. To Biden's credit, his vision of the past differs significantly from Trump's, and appeals to our better angels, unlike Trump's. But those were different times.
Nostalgia has its appeal and we can learn from hindsight, to be sure, but they are not enough. As much as I've always admired Biden, and continue to do so, the clarity that is needed in his message is convincing a sufficient number of Americans that the backwards direction in which which Trump is aiming the puck is not in the country's best interest. Neither turning the clock back nor a platform of time travel are the answer.
Instead of trying to turn back time, Biden would be far more successful in garnering votes if he would develop a message about where our country should head, along with a plan for getting us successfully into the future given today's realities, along with the human cost of not doing so.
Biden needs a simple message that the future can be better, accompanied by some well-aimed slap shots aimed squarely at Trump's vision of the past, a vision that gets Trump the puck out of here.
12
Once the primary is over it is then time to put away protest votes and give full support to whomever is the candidate.
The last protest votes have given a right wing Supreme Court for the next GENERATION.
Think about that.
28
@Rob Brown
Those protest votes (1 million for Stein total)
pale in comparison to the 10 million of DINO's who flipped.
Maybe you should think about that instead.
1
This is a thoughtful, sympathetic piece about Joe Biden. I think the writer made an insightful point that a great number of Americans are shocked and in mourning since Trump was elected. We feel the loss of our belief in America as that shining city on a hill, a welcoming, idealistic nation that tries to do the right thing . We made mistakes, for sure, but alway had the belief in ourselves as a good people who would eventually get it right. That belief ended when Trump was elected. I personally feel I have been in a depression since 2016 and I bet lots of others feel the same. Biden can speak the language of loss and endurance: the loss of a son to him, loss of a country to us. But America needs more than that now, Many of us are angry and want a candidate who can win but also but also look to the future, give us hope and ideas to makes America a more perfect union. I am not convinced Biden is the one.
6
@Mary Beth
Would you settle for a candidate who can win, just this once?
2
This was an excellent piece and a good reminder as to why Biden is very popular among most Democrats. It also reminds us that the best plan is to BOTH attract independents and mobilize the Obama coalition - Biden may be the best choice to get this done.
We all may have our favorites in this race, but everyone needs to accept and understand that they may not get their choice. If the party ultimately settles on Biden there are positives - he is incredibly experienced and is ready to be President on day one. The country is in turmoil and a calming influence is probably exactly what we need - we're not electing a President for the rest of time, but only a single term. Yes, he's gotten some votes wrong over a 40 year career and literally thousands of votes cast, but he is consistently liberal and progressive on most issues. Compared to Trump, he's a flaming liberal. Most important, he appears to be the one Democrat that can beat Trump and maybe beat him soundly. The African-American vote is crucial and Joe seems to have their strong support.
Strong cases can be made for other candidates, but it may be that Biden, running with Harris, is the strongest ticket. Yes, I'd like someone more movement-oriented like Warren, but at this point, I am far less confident PA, MI, WI and OH agrees with me.
It's still early and we don't need to decide right now - but argue positively for your choice. Tearing down any of the potential Democratic candidates is counter-productive.
18
@Frank Roseavelt
Harris is unique in that she is cordially disliked by substantial numbers of blacks (because she was a prosecutor) and whites (because she has all these wonderful plans to take their money and give it to blacks, AND she led by proposing to do away with private health insurance). Let's pick somebody that will add to Biden's votes, not subtract from them.
4
@Ken
Castro would be a good VP choice.
As Pete Buttigieg constantly reminds us, We are at a crossroads in history. This is the beginning of a new era like we had with FDR, Reagan. It will last for maybe 30-40 years.
Due to so many factors ( historical, technological, social+) we are laying the groundwork for our entire future and that of our kids.
The MAGA attitude that we need to make things like they were is seriously misguided and will not serve us well.
We must have a true leader who will take on the issues of the future and not look to the past.
Biden is a nice guy and he is the past incarnate as are Bernie and some others.
Mayor Pete is the fresh face of our future.
13
@simon sez But Mayor Pete's campaign is completely premised on the decades-old rhetoric of a JFK tacitly arguing youth and an elite background can substitute for a lack of policy depth. He is running as a repeat of the high Democrats experienced wirth JFK and Obama, and is thus as nostalgic in his own way as anyone else is.
Joe Biden , thus far, is the. only candidate that comes close to winning in 2020. Lokat the polls. I have some hesitations about Joe, too. But I will support the candidate who can beat Trump. Any person who loves this country will do the same.
26
I'd rather be right than fast. I'd like to think that much like JFK/LBJ, substantial change can come in a Biden administration. But, first you need to win. Politics is a bruising "game." Dems have the momentum to win this and then take back the Senate in the 2022 mid terms. Then bury the Republicans ( whoever that means) once and for all for generations.
9
When was the last time we elected a POTUS who promised to take us backwards? Never.
Biden--whom I am not a fan of because he is too corporate like Obama and Clinton--will need to look forward if he wants to win the nomination and presidency.
When was the last time a POTUS was elected who looked like his predecessor? Several decades ago.
America's so dissatisfied with their Presidents that we have been electing near polar opposites: Trump>Obama>W.Bush>Clinton>Bush...
Biden cannot look much different than Trump--similarly aged white men. That their politics are different is besides the point; Trump has no political ideology beyond rallying crowds around him.
5
@james
As soon as somebody says "corporate" my mind just clicks off. Sorry. But don't worry, the differences between Biden and Trump are clear: one is a nice, moderate guy who knows how to govern and build consensus, and the other is---Trump.
8
Finally! A semi-positive piece on Biden in the Times!
20
First, anyone but Trump.
But I fear Biden will lose for the same reason Hillary did: he’s too establishment. People want major change and Biden, though a return to common sense and basic human decency, is fairly bland.
8
@Andrew
No, people don't want major change. They want a rest, and they want to see Trump on his private airplane headed for some country that has no extradition treaty with the U.S. They don't want a left-wing screamer to replace the right-wing screamer.
6
If this election is about kitchen table issues: jobs & uniting this country there's no way the Dems lose. If it's about reparations, immigration, & AOC there's no way we win. Democrats have moved left & that's a huge problem in the upcoming presidential election. If more than 50% of white progressives really want to see higher immigration levels then it's over. If progressives want to dismantle border enforcement agencies, eliminate criminal sanctions against illegal immigrants, & give them free healthcare then it's really over. This is the only issue that would compel independent swing voters to hold their nose & vote for Trump. I've had it with the leftist fanatics who keep trying to push the Dems off the cliff or into a circular firing squad. Amazing that after losing to Trump by alienating working-class voters, we're scrounging for issues that will alienate them even more. Free healthcare for illegal immigrants? The more benefits we give, the more will try to get here. It's an impossible equation. If we lose this election you blame it on leftist zealots pushing divisive issues like this. The biggest question implied but not answered in this article is can Democratic Moderates & progressives co-exist in the same party. I would say absolutely not. The voters we need to win back the country have different values. There's no way to bridge the gap. If any of the far-left candidates are the nominees in 2020 we will lose decisively. We need to steer a course towards the center.
14
@Ed Davis
Democrasts have not moved "left". It is the reporters and media "faces" who write the articles about the politicians who choose to denote Democratic party activities as "moving left". Indeed, if there were not people from all over the political spectrum in the Democratic party, it would not be representative. That newspaper writers-mostly too young to have lived through the great socio political movements and issues of the 50's or 60's, it must seem easier to identitfy the two main political parties as always and forever on opposite political poles.
This makes their commentary jobs so much easier as they no longer have to do deep or serious thinking about issues-they just set them up like Punch and Judy and have them wail away at one another.
5
All I can say is that I'm just one person, but this one person will stay home if Biden is the nominee. It's really as simple as that.
4
@Michael
Biden will not be the nominee. I know that many will think this is crazy but though I like him, all signs point to his decline.
This is his last hurrah.
2
Please, don’t stay home. We need to remove trump. Just look at what’s happened to our country with the republicans in charge.
4
@Michael Your sense of ideological satisfaction will be of little comfort during the next four years of Trump.
2
If Joe wins the nomination, the left is just going to elect Trump again. Remember, if it weren’t for liberals, we would be in our 27th consecutive year of Democratic presidents and there would be 8 Democratic nominees on the US Supreme Court.
2
I hope he becomes the nominee but it’s all down to campaign trail performance. Obama won not only because he was intelligent and charismatic but also because he was an absolute warrior on the campaign trail. As we all know, Hillary didn’t even step foot in Wisconsin.
I’ll vote for whomever the nominee is but honestly Kamala Harris will be a stretch for me. She’s Hillary without the record, Obama without the charisma. Her whole schtick seems calculated in a way that’s likely to get trounced in critical states in 2020.
7
@Dudesworth
She also has the same issue Obama has. She’s not white.
For voters unnerved by Trump’s conduct in office but not necessarily seeking radical change, he offers vast experience, conciliatory instincts and an empathy rooted in personal anguish...Trump practices the politics of vengeance; Biden practices the politics of empathy. "
I think this last point is important. Historically, voters tend to like the optimists over the complainers. Of course, the last election disproved that, but intervening factors (Russia) tipped the scales to Trump.
I have mixed feelings about Biden because of his age and gaffes, but I recognize he has a direct appeal that's hard to quantify.
Of all the candidates, I think a Biden-Trump race would be fascinating--forces of evil versus forces of light. Which, in the end, underneath all the endless talk, is what this election is all about.
18
Joe Biden Wants to Take America Back to a Time Before Trump
Is that what Democrats want?
You could also frame this as a more positive aspiration: Joe Biden Wants to Move Forward to a More Enlightened Post-Trump Era.
23
The bottom line is that if Democrats don’t nominate someone who appeals to the moderate/centrist (and often) unaffiliated voter, they’re going to hand Trump the election.
If the presidency is the ultimate goal, then a contest about who is able to disavow positions with the broadest appeal in favor of positions with the most limited appeal, seems to be the wrong way to go. It also demonstrates an absence of leadership that one would expect a president to have. I think Biden is the most impressive potential leader, and the most electable. He strikes me as someone who cares more about getting the job done well, and not about plotting a path that will let him pick up as many political points with core supporters (which seems to be the way it’s done, these days with the less-capable, opportunistic set that seems to dominate both parties — people who also seem to have no appreciation for the fact that a president is meant to be a leader for everybody, not just their own party supporters).
19
My goal is to get rid of trump and McConnell in 2020 so I will vote for whomever runs against him. That said I like Joe but he is not my ideal choice. I think he record will hurt him along with his age. My choice is Amy Klobuchar. I believe she has the Midwest/rust belt draw and is center enough for non DEMs to embrace. I am surprised she's not doing better.
12
Maybe because of her treatment of her staff. I ruled her out because of that. I don’t want someone who throws things at her staff and berates them.
8
I agree on Amy, thought she would do better. a good VP choice
She’s not doing better because, like Joe, she’s no different than what has left us in this catastrophic situation.
4
Joe Biden has a long and consistent voting record that needs to be explored in detail. He is perhaps the person most responsible for the complete deregulation of the american financial industry. Contrary to the popular narrative, the democratic party systematically deregulated the banking industry in the 70s and 90s and Joe Biden lead the way.
45
It would be better to take the country, or at least the Democratic Party, to a time before Bill Clinton and the DLC abandoned the New Deal and the middle and working classes.
1980 is when productivity and wages stopped going up together. 1980 is when incomes flattened. That was due to Reagan's policies, which every subsequent president more or less embraced.
Those policies gave us those people who, as Obama said in 2008, had nothing to cling to but "guns and religion." Those policies—and not Russia, by the way—gave us Donald Trump.
47
@Derek Flint
I wish people who clearly are not familiar with history would stop bringing up the New Deal, so I wouldn't have to give the lesson.
In that "Golden Age", 75% of the population... women and minorities... were second-class citizens; not just because of social convention but legally and economically.
To say that Democrats abandoned the "working class" is nonsense; what happened was that the Noble Union White Males abandoned the party when their privileged status was threatened by civil/women's/environmental rights progress. They gave us Reagan and his policies.
Whatever FDR may have felt personally, the New Deal involved ratifying inequities to bring the Dixiecrats along, and after WWII the women and minorities who worked at building the machinery of war were sent back to their "proper" status and employment niches.
So please, stop repeating phony right-wing talking points. There was very real progress made in the 60's, and much of it was actually enabled by the then-Republican "elites" who would fit in the category with Bill Clinton that you are condemning.
3
Correct.
The only one finishing the work of FDR, is
Bernie.
8
@Derek Flint
Immigrants and hispanics-americans don't vote that much either. They get by on a lot less, but don't seem to cling to guns and religion. How will the American system serve their needs in the future? One has to wonder.
2
Biden thinks no one thought in 2016 that Trump would be as bad as he is? That's simply not true - it's just another example of how out of touch Biden is and has been. A lot of people thought in 2016 Trump would be even worse than he has been so far. People were afraid Trump would have brought the US a foreign war, a new civil war, economic collapse, an authoritarian one-man rule, a vassal state of the Russian oligarchy, and jailing of dissidents and journalists.
The courts, some of Trumps advisors, the Senate filibuster and, since 2018, the House have constrained Trump's worst impulses and prevented the worst outcomes, at least so far. But Trump showed the US exactly who he was and what kind of President he would be during the 2016 campaign and during all the years before. Biden simply misjudged Trump and believes everyone else did as well.
24
“In just about every battleground state, there are more conservative voters than liberal voters. So a Republican nominee starts out closer to the goal line than a Democrat does. That’s the fact.”
Moderate Democrats like David Plouffe need to be mindful of other facts. Opting for a more conservative ground game—to stick with the football metaphor—has done little to enhance the overall electability of Democrats or move the country sufficiently forward over the past few decades. Despite some genuine successes (e.g., Obamacare, gay marriage, etc.), much ground has been lost in other vital areas.
America is a less fair and more oligarchical nation due to the obscene consolidation of wealth and power among a very few of its citizens. And the very real threats posed by climate change—thanks in no small part to the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry, which promotes an unsustainable dependency—have largely been neglected, as global warming and extreme weather events have steadily increased.
The challenges with which this country is confronted demand a boldness that a candidate like Biden seems to lack. What will we gain by handing the ball to the stalwart fullback when a long (and, admittedly, more risky) pass is required? The clock is ticking down, and it is not enough to move the ball a few yards downfield on the next play. Circumstances are pushing us backwards, and America needs more forward-thinking leadership than Biden can likely offer.
34
There was a time before Trump?
5
I believe Biden is the only candidate who Trump truly fears, because he believes Biden is only the candidate that is almost certain to unseat him. Biden is likeable, he isn't extreme, he isn't threatening; he's basically a shoo-in of he runs against Trump.
For me, the only essential qualification for any candidate is that he will defeat the current sitting president. Anything more is just icing on the cake. And though it is certainly debatable whether Biden would make the best *president* of all the current Democratic candidates, I sincerely believe he would make the best *candidate*. Probably the one thing I agree with Donald on.
Hillary may have made a very good president, but she was a lousy candidate. That's how we got Trump. I hope the Democratic party does not make the same mistake again. Fingers crossed.
105
Biden is Hillary 2.0.
The result will be the same.
6
Yeah, she was lousy alright. I mean, what’s up with getting almost 3 million more votes that DT. Yeah, that’s a lousy performance all right. Sheesh.
3
Biden looked like a befuddled old man on the debate stage that was desperately out of touch with the wants, needs, and desires or the Democratic voter. I have seen nothing since that erases that image.
The torch may not have been passed to Congressman Swalwell, but make no mistake that the torch has been passed. The generations that fought and lived through World War II and Korea are mostly gone and the generation of Vietnam are now dropping from the voter rolls. The long silent members of Generation X are now in their prime and the Millenials are, by number, larger than the Baby Boom generation, these two generations are very different in outlook from their parents and grandparents.
Anyone chasing the rust belt narrative is on a fool's errand. The Reagan Democrats are now either dead or solidly in the Republican orbit of Fox News, Conservative Radio and Right-Wing Websites. They do not read the New York Times or watch anything resembling our center-right but accused of being liberal mainstream media. I doubt Mr. Biden could reach them if he were the nominee.
It is time the Democratic Party cast the Clinton/Obama era aside and remembered that it is not a party of Wall Street and Coastal California, but a national party of working people (as in wages- not salary) who do not live in gated communities or send their kids to private schools.
37
@David Gregory excellent points but then 2020 all comes down to charisma - I see nobody besides Biden that has that in winning measure. If Obama was running for the first time today on Warren’s platform then he would be a shoe-in and we’d have our next FDR. But sadly that’s not the reality we live in.
5
I unabashedly love Joe Biden, from his wonderful accomplishments and hunger for public service, to his personal and professional blemishes (which, tend to get blown to many times their respective original size and intent).
What I admire most, aside from his ability to move on from pain and loss, his depth of love, his vast experience, and his integrity, is that throughout the years he has constantly evolved. He is not the same man he was 10, 20, or 30 years ago. We observed him grow in myriad ways during his tenure as VP, and after his son's death.
Don't underestimate Joe Biden, nor those who admire, respect, and support him. I don't see an "Uncle Joe", far from it. Biden would make, or will make, an outstanding U.S. President.
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@N Stewart My main concern is not about Biden's polices, which are middle-of-the-road Democratic. Instead, it is that he is three of four years older than Robert Mueller whose unexpected frailties we have seen during the past week. If Biden should receive the nomination, the Democratic convention should insist that he select a serious vice president capable of assuming the presidency within 2-3 years if necessary.
1
@Matthew
Mueller is 74, Biden is 75. Many 90-year-olds are sharp as tacks (and many are not). So in a way I share your concern. But Biden seems to be in the sharp category, out in public every day selling himself, while Mueller was the “eminence grise,” reluctant to the point of paranoia of being seen or heard.
2
Reading through the article I feel that Joe Biden’s biggest point for presidential bid is he is not Trump.
This point is not new and many pointed out this.
As Thomas Friedman said in a recent article, this coming election is not about revolution but about restoring decency.
33
@Jonas Goh
Well all of the Democratic candidates are decent. Any of them would restore decency to the office. Biden does not have some particular lock on that.
14
Great photos! The machinations to get access must have been a chore.
On the campaign trail Trump used to muse out loud “wouldn’t it be great if we got along with Russia better?” Biden can raise the ante and ask Americans “ wouldn’t it be great if we all got along better and showed respect for each other?” It is time to heal America. Trump is tearing America apart along racial and cultural lines. Biden could get elected as a bridge builder. It is time to make America whole again.It is time to restore traditional American values. Biden may be just what America needs to end the darkness of Trump and his enablers.
53
A time before Trump? Like Dubya? Reagan? Nixon maybe? Yeah that's nothing to really crow about. Slick Willy wasn't bad but besides Obama the last truly great President in the US of A was JFK. Biden is no JFK. He's not even a real Democrat. Just another DINO who's been a shill for the rich/big biz for his career. America desperately needs to take a hard left and Biden ain't it, if he ever was.
35
No he doesn't. He wants to re-establish stability in the White House. Trump is a 6 year old. He is immature and he makes us the laughing stock of the world. I simply cannot believe some of the nonsense that comes out of his mouth. We need a president we can respect and trust. Biden is that person. He can beat Trump, bring us together and govern.
44
@Doris Keyes
Actually, Doris, can you believe ANY of the nonsense that comes out of Trump's mouth? :)
1
All my Conservative/Republican colleagues and relatives say they would vote for Biden and only Biden.
Next!
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@BK
How curious.
All my Conservative/Republican colleagues and relatives tell me that the best choice is Mayor Pete.
8
@BK
All the conservatives and Republicans I know say they’re going to vote for Trump and only Trump.
Call me crazy, but I think the Democratic candidate should appeal more to Democrats than Republicans.
37
@BK
How curious.
All my Conservative/Republican colleagues and relatives tell me that the best choice is Biden, he is sure to keep the status quo and money flow, to us, the Conservative/Republican. Biden is too close too the center edge and we are already hanging by our fingertips. Going back will take us to the times when the rules to pick the SCOTUS can be ruled as we go along, going high, (with the Republicans) .
No thanks.
12
I see the progressive women's fifth column, NY Times, is publishing another anti-Biden article intended to doom the only plausible candidacy the Democrats have against Trump. Yesterday it was another famous political expert, Paul Krugman. We Democrats, and I consider myself a white liberal male, are ready to give up on the party and not vote. Then the prospect of five and a half more years of Trump will cement Democratic stupidity and self destruction .
12
@Baboulas Hard at work down on the Russian Internet Trollfarm trying to discourage voters from coming out to vote against Trump? If that's not true, then you sure as heck are doing their work for them.
Don't listen to clods like Baboulas folks. That's exactly what brought the disease that is Trump upon us.
13
@Baboulas I truly hope you're using hyperbole when you say you're ready to give up and not vote. You would rather abandon the democratic process altogether than vote for a Democrat, any Democrat, who you don't think has a chance of winning? That's perverse, especially in a red or purple state where liberal voters need to show up, even if just to convey the message that the majority of Americans are _not_ moving to the far right, as the current administration would have us believe. If you don't want another Trump term, set an example and help buoy would-be anti-Trump voters by showing up.
9
Baboulus Thank you for your bravery in speaking your mind. It is important that we listen to those not entirely happy with the blue bubble. If we don’t, we will doom ourselves to irrelevance. We, the educated elite, are so wedded to identity politics that we forget to respect those who are not smitten with intersectionality and post-modernism.
Biden's spry appearance & ability to do pushups don't mitigate his image as a conventional figure from a long ago time.
I love Barack Obama. Joe Biden is no Barack Obama.
From the odious 1994 Crime Bill Biden authored that devastated African-American communities to his disregard of Anita Hill's treatment by Clarence Thomas to his support of the Iraq War (4,424 K.I.A. U.S. troops) to his shepherding thru 2 bankruptcy 'reform' bills that ended student loan bankruptcy protection & the ability of middle class folks to declare Chapter 7, Biden's never acted as a supporter of people in financial distress or who've live with systemic racism or of women who need reproductive control of their bodies.
Biden almost always sided with Republican-lite policies & policies most favorable to financial institutions that crushed many average Americans w/ debt.
Nobody's going to vote for Biden because Beau died. I feel sympathy for his loss without wanting him to be president.
Nothing about Biden will motivate young voters to turn out in 2020 - they're desperately needed & potentially as important as "diner guys" & they'll view Biden as their "out of touch" granddad. He also carries burdens about not understanding how to interact respectfully with women & his lukewarm support of Roe v. Wade.
I'm sure Biden treats his family, friends & associates with charm & respect. For those of us not in his 'base' Biden seems like a callous elderly poll stuck in the deep past.
We have to do better.
51
@fast/furious Who? Maybe someone will show up. But for now. Biden is the only person who can beat Trump.
17
@Doris Keyes
That's simply not true. Sanders does just as well vs Trump both nationally and at the state level, while Warren and Harris both show lesser leads - but still leads.
Let's nominate someone who will move us forward when they beat Trump, not someone who seems bound and determined not to learn from history.
4
All the youngsters are going to have to wake up from their “woke” fantasies and sober up and vote. Otherwise, hope they enjoy birthing a dictatorship for their children.
1
Despite my best efforts, I can't shake Joe Biden.
He is wrong on abortion;
He is wrong in matters of war;
He has carried water for the worst financial companies;
He doesn't know how to run a national campaign;
He is undeniably old;
His family is a mess;
He seems to view women as second class citizens.
And yet, he is still my second choice (after Warren). In policy terms, that makes no sense. But he is an honest man, and he understands how to work with people. He will attract enough of the Michigan, Wisconsin and PA people to win. I guess that's good enough for me at the moment.
18
@Cousy and yet, can’t begin to understand why he would continually wrap himself in his son’s death for context. For context!
4
To riff on the article’s title, it sounds to me as if most of the other presidential candidates besides Joe Biden want to take American back to the days and ideas of Karl Marx.
In the recent debates and their follow-on comments we heard many candidates offering a wide range of “progressive” (socialist) promises:
Free college tuition. Medicare for all, including illegal immigrants. College loan forgiveness. Reparations for blacks and gays. Guaranteed basic income. Federal job guarantees. Federally mandated school busing to achieve integration. Green New Deal (eco-socialism). Voting for prisoners. Open borders.
All the fabulously wealthy US individuals and corporations together do not have the many trillions of dollars needed to pay for these goodies year after year, and even Bernie Sanders has admitted that taxes would have to be raised on the middle class to pay for Medicare for All, not to mention the additional trillions needed for the other items. (For perspective, the current US budget is about $4.4 trillion, with a deficit of about $1 trillion.)
As Margaret Thatcher aptly noted, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.
If all of these progressive (socialist) promises, or even a few, are planks in the 2020 Democratic platform we are doomed to a second term of Trump as President.
11
Karl Marx! Give me a break.
19
@Mon Ray
Exactly. We've all had enough of free fire depts, free roads and highways, communal public parks, social security without extra fees, free schools for the kids, communal public military defense, socialistic gov't programs to 'clean' the water and air.
So what if we made the huge corporations actually pay U.S. taxes? Only if we returned tax rates to the ridiculous rates during the (hugely prosperous) 50s and 60s could we afford all the socialistic programs that would strengthen the middle class and restore the core of the U.S. economy. Can't do that because Socialism.
And, yes, even Bernie Sanders admitted that, by obliterating all health insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles - all of it - if you'd pay a little bit more in tax to save all that money, it's still no good because Socialism.
54
@Sam Sinister Beautiful.
5
To riff on the article’s title, it sounds to me as if most of the other presidential candidates besides Joe Biden want to take American back to the days and ideas of Karl Marx.
In the recent debates and their follow-on comments we heard many candidates offering a wide range of “progressive” (socialist) promises:
Free college tuition. Medicare for all, including illegal immigrants. College loan forgiveness. Reparations for blacks and gays. Guaranteed basic income. Federal job guarantees. Federally mandated school busing to achieve integration. Green New Deal (eco-socialism). Voting for prisoners. Open borders.
All the fabulously wealthy US individuals and corporations together do not have the many trillions of dollars needed to pay for these goodies year after year, and even Bernie Sanders has admitted that taxes would have to be raised on the middle class to pay for Medicare for All, not to mention the additional trillions needed for the other items. (For perspective, the current US budget is about $4.4 trillion, with a deficit of about $1 trillion.)
As Margaret Thatcher aptly noted, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.
If all of these progressive (socialist) promises, or even a few, are planks in the 2020 Democratic platform we are doomed to a second term of Trump as President.
2
The myth that Biden has the ability to attract so called white working class voters is exactly that, a myth. He's never demonstrated that he can actually do it, on his own, outside of of tiny Delaware.
107
@Ken calvey, ok, so name one other democratic candidate who has done it anywhere else.
1
Consider Biden’s excellence in campaigning on the Democratic ticket in 2008 and 2012. He was extremely popular.
2
Joe Biden Wants to Take America Back to a Time Before Trump? Trump wants to take America back to a time before Trump. It's a common fantasy and I emphasize the word fantasy.
We've had enough and heard enough from "leaders" who want to run the world based on fantasies. What we need to do is face the facts not the fantasies.
The facts:
1) Global warming that will end civilization as we know it
2) The extraordinarily destabilizing income gap (global and national)
3) A completely neglected infrastructure (pick an area - transportation, roads, affordable housing, etc.)
4) Access to proper health care
5) Anti-democratic lack of access to education (an intelligent electorate is an informed electorate and we are quite a distance from that at this point) and job skills
6) The dangers of nuclear and conventional war
7) Persistent racial segregation and related absence of equal opportunity
That's the short list and anybody who wants to go back to the time before Trump (including Trump, Biden, et al) represents a direct threat to the survival of mankind at this point.
We need brains, honesty, and audacity and that seems to be in short supply among those seeking (or holding) political office. As Samuel Clemens noted many years ago, "We've got the finest government that money can buy."
11
@Bob
Yes, but we need a moment to regroup before moving forward into this century. Neither for nor against Biden, but for democratic victory. The primaries should throw some light on our prospects.
2
If Biden can ignore the self centered candidates like Harris, and let the working class know that he is in this thing for them, then he will find the going more rewarding.
11
A DEMOCRATIC DREAM
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Democratic Party not the Democrat Party won a larger majority in the US House of Representative and a super majority in the US Senate of say 65 votes?
What might happen it this were to occur?
There would be legislation to admit Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states. The Supreme Court would be increased to twelve members. There would be a National Transportation Bank that would guarantee loans to states and municipalities for highway, bridge, tunnel and railway improvements. There would be a National Global Warming Bank that would guarantee loans to states for initiatives to place solar panels on rooftops of all public buildings and create wind power generation wherever possible.A
On the fiscal side, there would be an overhaul of the budgeting process. Federal budgets would start from zero each year and all departments would need to show what funds were needed for the next year not adding to the previous year as the now do. The monetary income limit on Social Security Tax would be raised one million dollars and would include all income not just taxable income. The Medicare Tax would be similarly modified.
A Value Added Tax would be put in place with a view toward eliminating the Income Tax and enhancing competition globally.
Before eliminating the Income Tax it would be used to eliminate the national debt.
9
Though even most of the favorable commentators on Biden's candidacy tend to express a lack of excitement, I've long suspected that seeming drawback is his biggest asset. If, as often seems the case in presidential politics, voters seem to respond best to the candidate whose character and temperament best corrects for the perceived flaws of the previous occupant, then the calm, steady, decent, middle-of-the-road -- okay, even borderline boring -- Biden may just be the man for this moment. And his consistently high polling, I think, suggests as much.
So maybe Muskie, and not McGovern.
19
@Scott Grammel Muskie? The guy whose campaign was undone by a forged letter and a crying speech? What I fear with Biden is a similar implosion only due to his own gaffes. Biden has already run for President twice and failed twice.
4
Something about the word (BACK)
1
Biden's desperate reversal of his decades-old position on the Hyde Amendment, combined with his pitiful use of his deceased son, are reasons enough to just say no to Joe.
10
You mean to the Obama years when I lost my house?
Get out of here.
I mean it, no thanks.
10
@AutumnLeaf
OK, now you must tell us how you equate Obama directly to losing your house:
26
@AutumnLeaf
I lost my home in the1990s because of medical disability caused by not being able to purchase health insurance (pre-existing condition), followed by inability to work and losing everything I had.
That was on Bill Clinton's watch on health care (the Clintons were obsessed with Hillary doing it and because of her secrecy it didn't attract supporters). bankruptcy "reform" (an attack on working people pushed by Clinton & Joe Biden) & other things.
I'd never vote for a Republican because I know they're worse. But I'll never forgive people like Bill Clinton and Joe Biden for pushing the Democratic Party so far to the right they might as well be Republicans.
17
"I thought Hillary would have made a good president.”
How about vice president? Biden/Clinton 2020?
5
@Marge Keller
Do you really want to guarantee a Trump landslide?
HRC is toxic, third-rail, low Q rating, take your pick.
I voted for her in 2016, but I would never waste a vote on her again.
9
@Marge Keller
HRC is kryptonite.
7
To the extent that Biden is authentic, what he has stood for in the past is absolutely what we do not need now.
Biden is Biden, and he has not changed.
Talking about who voted for or against the Iraq War may be tiresome, but it indicates mindset and judgement, as does his support for Wall Street, NAFTA, TPP, his simplistic tough on crime actions...
I can't imagine Biden inspiring any but fearful centrists to vote for him.
I'll take Senator Bernie Sanders' mindset, judgment, courage, integrity and domestic AND foreign policy over Biden, easily.
President Bernie Sanders 2020
A Future To Believe In
6
Devin Yalkin's photography is absolutely stunning. Brilliant work, and a brilliant choice by the editors.
10
@Bill Camarda
I agree, gorgeous photography. Also clever editorializing, as they do have such a strong vintage feel and really do imply a time in the past. The late 50's early 60's. This is where Trump wants us too, albeit for different reasons, and both men are wrong.
3
Joe knows that the national debt will crush the US. He sees a distinct parallel to what happened in Italy and Germany a century ago. Potus has sowed the seeds for a labor crisis in the next decade. For a refresher, watch Rick Steve's PBS doc, Fascism.
You need someone who backs unions!
Paul Anziano
10
@Paul
Joe Biden backs unions to the same extent that the Delaware-based corporations he toadied to for decades do - not at all.
3
Joe is old, no doubt about it.
However, he has 8 years of experience in the executive branch of government, a heartbeat away from President Obama, and must be considered not only a plausible candidate but a very strong contender. He of course has served in Congress, too.
Let us not forget that the goal here is to unseat Trump in 2020, and Joe has the chops to do it.
Does Joe have downsides? Of course, all the candidates do, but he looks a lot better to this Democrat than all the other candidates who are promising to bring socialism to America and competing with each other to see who can be the most woke and farthest left.
I'll vote for Joe because he has the experience to be a good president and the ability to work with Congress and other nations.
I hope Joe gets the nomination and I will vote for him.
137
@Mon Ray He's also a certified liar. Remember that time Joe ran in 1988 and had to end his campaign when people realized his life story was plagiarized from a British politician? Good times, eh? You are right about one thing, he would be preferable to the other meritless, moronic candidates with a D behind their name with the possible exception of Tulsi Gabbard who at least had the decency to flee the DNC after what they did to Bernie Sanders last time around and drew the ire of most so-called Liberals when she went to Syria to see it for herself and said we were on the wrong side there...
13
@Mon Ray
No one running as a Democrat - no one- is trying to "bring socialism to America".
4
I'm certainly not a political strategist, but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, so here's my (sort of) informed 2 cents' worth...what if Biden were to partner with one of the three eligible members "the Squad" (or one of their ideological equals) as a running mate, with the idea that he serve only one term (although maybe he doesn't say that pre-election)? Seems like that might draw voters across the leftist spectrum.
However you slice it, he's a remarkable individual who has endured grievous losses and come away from each a stronger, but more contemplative, man.
7
@Stuart Watson I agree. You are no political strategist!
Joe taking on a member of "The Squad" as a running mate would be about as politically astute as when John McCain took on Sarah Palin as his running mate to appease the right wing of his party. The thought "one heartbeat away" certainly concentrated the nation's mind...
We all remember how well that worked out for him!
7